When Two Universes Collide
by Pixel and Stephanie Forever
Summary: The final battle for the Light goes badly and Harry is thrown through time and space to another universe by his friends. Settling onboard the Battlestar Galactica, he helps the Colonials in their fight against the Cylons, learns to deal with his losses and starts a relationship with a crewman - all the time hoping that he can find a way to go home and save his friends.
1. Two Worlds Collide

**Two Worlds Collide**

"I was wondering when we'd get a break from this" William Adama sighed as he sat in his quarters and looked over reports from his XO and long term friend, Saul Tigh.

"I could always ask the Cylons for a 48 hour pass" Tigh replied with faint amusement.

"You better wipe that smile off your face before I bust you down to crewman"

"You realise that you'd have to make the LSO your Executive?"

"On second thoughts…" and the two men laughed. Adama was about to say something else when the alarms sounded off and his intercom phone started buzzing. "Adama – Sit Rep"

"_Sir, we've just had something bright blue appear on the port hanger deck. We don't know what happened, but according to the Chief it just appeared in a flash of light_" one the _Galactica_'s officers spoke from the Combat Information Centre – known as the CIC.

"Get the Marines down there on the double and start evacuating the area. I'm on my way with the XO" and he hung up and looked at Tigh. "Well, old friend, looks like we got our break – Chief just called in a large blue something appearing on the deck"

"Is he at the engine room hooch again?" Tigh asked with a sigh lacing his words.

"Why…? You jealous?" Adama chuckled as he headed out.

#

"I see what you mean" Adama said as he looked at the bright blue ball that was hovering over the deck.

"It just appeared in a flash of bright light, Commander" Chief Tyrol said. "I don't know if this is Cylon technology or what… Figured I'd get my people out of here and call for help"

"You did good, Chief" Tigh said. "Radiation readings? Chemical leaks?" he asked. The XO might be somebody that drank a lot, sometimes even on duty, but he knew his stuff and was by the book on this occasion.

"None… All we can tell is that its hovering, but we don't know how. There are no engines we can see, no anti gravity plating we can make out – hell, Colonel, it looks and reads as nothing more dangerous than a rubber bouncy toy"

"Have you tried communicating with it?" Adama asked, starting to walk around the thing and looking all over it.

"We've tried everything, Commander, up to and including a brief version of the Chicken Dance Of Caprica… Nothing seems to work, though it did seem to rotate when Private Dickerson moved"

"Private Dickerson!" Tigh shouted and a tall, blonde Marine came over and saluted. "What did you do to make this _thing_ rotate to look at you"

"I was adjusting my body armour and my chest…" the woman blushed, "Well, Sirs, it jiggled"

"This is something I thought I'd never order, but stand in front of the thing and jiggle your chest" Adama tried to keep a straight face.

"Aye" and the embarrassed Marine did just that. The blue ball rotated to look at her better and then tilted up and down as if looking at her breasts. Nobody spoke a word at the completely bizarreness taking place until a crack appeared in the surface of the object and a doorway seemed to form. The part inside the 'doorway' seemed to vanish and a figure came out with shaking legs. Tall, thin, pale and with long black hair, the figure seemed exhausted as it put a hand up to steady itself. Adama and Tigh instantly got flashbacks to moments during the war when they had seen exhausted ground forces getting out of troop transports – was this person in a war of some kind?

"Are… Are you real?" asked the person. Adama would have said he was human, but his recent experience with the Cylons taught him otherwise.

"Very much so. You are aboard the Battlestar _Galactica_"

"That sounds impressive… I don't know what it means, but it sounds bloody impressive. Excuse me for asking so shortly after meeting, but could I trouble you for a Doctor?" and the man dropped to the deck after passing out. The blue ball sealed itself up and then moved to squeeze itself inside one of the unused Viper repair bays – Adama got the idea it was programmed to move to any kind of storage area when not in use.

"Bill?" it was Tigh.

"Saul, get Cottle down here on the double with a team to treat him"

"Want me to have the Doc run a test on him?"

"No"

"He could be a human toaster"

"He's not… Remember the loss of _Columbia_? Remember the storming of the _Galidor_? He has the same look as one of the survivors" Adama looked at Tigh who simply nodded and hurried over to get a team down. "Chief, resume work here, but don't go near that thing until this guy wakes up or something else happens"

"Aye, Commander"

#

Hours later, Adama was called by Cottle down to Sickbay to talk about the mystery person.

"His name is Harry Potter" the Doctor said, "We found his name on a piece of card tucked into a wallet. Didn't find much else apart from some old rolls of paper with an unknown language on it, some glass bottles with something on that the lab is working on and shaped piece of wood. That last one is odd"

"Define _odd_"

"When I took it off him, it felt as if I'd just been very lightly shocked"

"Stun gun?"

"Its an odd one if it is… Anyway, my medical report of him. He's very much underfed, he's has three dozen broken bones – and those are broken in multiple places! I've also got signs of torture, poisons… Frankly, Commander, I'm not sure how he's even alive"

"Will he get through?"

"Can't say for sure, but all the signs seem to point to the fact he might well do" Cottle shrugged. "He won't be answering any questions for at least three days from now"

"Very well… Doc, what did you do with his things?"

"Most of them are sat in a security locker in my office, but I sent the paper things to communications in case they were some sort of code" and Cottle looked around as if afraid of what he would say next. "Commander… Bill… The x-rays not only show his current broken bones, but also evidence of broken bones from around the age of three upwards. Whatever this Harry Potter is, he's been through a hell of a lot. If its okay with you, I'd like to move him to VIP quarters because being in an environment like this where he could confuse it with a prison could kill him"

"Its that serious?" Adama frowned. Cottle had called him by the short version of his first name and he only ever did that was he was being deadly serious.

"What I would do there is only what I'm doing here… I'll move him during the night watch" the Doctor assured Adama.

"Very well… I'm posting a Marine to the hatchway here and to go with him when you move him. He's no Cylon, but I can't take the chance that whatever he escaped from is going to be looking for him"

"Fair enough. Oh, Commander, there is something else… Before we operated on him, he came round for a few moments and asked how many others managed to get out with him. Now I'm not entirely sure what he meant, but I think he didn't mean from that funny little ship" Cottle lit a cigarette before continuing. "I'm a big fan of old fashioned sci-fi and this sounds like one of those stories – you know the ones where the hero is pulled from another dimension?"

"I think that is exactly what it means, Doctor" and the two men turned to stare in amazement as the man groaned in discomfort as he sat up in the bed. "Did anybody make it with me? Hermione? Luna? Daphne? Pansy?"

"I'm sorry, but nobody got out of whatever it was that you arrived in after you did" Adama moved over. "I'm Commander Adama"

"I think I remember you… I'm Harry James Potter. Are you certain nobody else got out after me?"

"No…"

"Damn"

"Look, can you tell me something about yourself please?" Adama asked. "Where have you come from? What are you doing here?"

"I come from a planet known as Earth. As for what I am doing here, well that is a tough one. My friends and I were fighting a war against a terrorist that had infiltrated our government and had taken over the country – killing those that stood in his way"

"You seem fairly sure you are not on Earth" Adama felt a little excited at the name of the planet this Harry Potter came from – perhaps the Gods really existed and had sent him to guide them.

"I can sense things… I have magic still, but I can't feel the background levels of magic around me"

"_Magic_?" asked Cottle.

"I am known as a Wizard" Harry sighed. "Female magicians are known as Witches. Anyway, this terrorist and his group had finally cornered us and we had to use all of our magic to take us to another dimension where we could make sure the war never happened"

"I take it something went wrong"

"There must have been some magical backlash… If Hermione and Luna were here, those two would have had it worked out by now"

"You seem to be taking their loss very well, considering" Adama exchanged a look with Cottle.

"If they were here, I would be able to sense them" Harry shook his head slowly. "Commander, if all else were to fail, then we were going to destroy the area around us to stop evil once and for all. I am not just the last of my group, I am the last of the magical race"

"You blew up your own planet?" Adama's jaw actually dropped at that one.

"That was the plan, Commander. There were a few people hiding in the hills and mountains, but freedom to starve and die is no freedom at all"

"You sound a military man"

"Close enough – after school was closed down, I joined the Aurors which are kind of magical police and special forces in one. I'm only twenty, but war is good for promotions"

"I know that very well" and Harry looked at Adama.

"Yes, you do…" he replied sadly. "Well I feel tired all of a sudden, but I will try to answer your questions later. Oh, by the way" he added as he lay back down in the bed and closed his eyes, "The black guy over there is a robot" and he dozed off.

"MARINES!" Adama yelled.

#

Harry quickly became the talk of the ship and the fleet once Adama allowed him to move around the _Galactica_ with an escort. After finding out that the so called Cylon Detector was rigged to give false readings, Gaius Baltar was arrested and thrown into the Brig pending charges whilst everybody on _Galactica_ was screened for real. Despite his previous cheerfulness, Harry seemed to most of the crew to be depressed as he spent most of his time either in his cabin or sat in a chair staring at the blue ball that he had arrived in. Nobody dared to speak to him until a young crewman walked over with engine oil and grease on her nose and cheeks and sporting tied back red hair.

"Sir?" she ventured and Harry looked at her questionably.

"Am I in your way?"

"No… I just wanted to know why you come down here and stare at this… _thing_"

"Because it reminds me of what I have achieved and what I lost" Harry replied sadly. "Anyway, shouldn't you be getting back to work? I doubt that Chief fella will want to see you slacking off"

"Actually, he sent me over here to try and get you to talk"

"Then I think we can assume your mission was a success" Harry replied bitterly. "Your feet tired?"

"Been on shift since 0800 and its 1400 now" the woman shrugged.

"Have a chair then" and Harry absently conjured a chair out of thin air for her. "No, I am not a god… Just somebody with extra abilities" he said with a mixture of both resignation and despair. He'd been careful with how and what he showed off his magic with to the Colonials, but he knew there would be a time when he would have to show off the wide range of abilities he had to offer them. With nowhere else to go, Adama had offered him a place in the fleet and the chance to stay on the _Galactica_ itself which Harry had gratefully accepted. "Say, what's your name?"

"Aviation Engine Crewman Rebecca Hartley"

"Double score on Scrabble" Harry muttered. "Well, you might as well start with the questions everybody else is asking"

"Such as…?"

"All the sorts of questions you ask of a damned exhibit. People want to know so much about me, but they don't know about me and my life. I have been taken from a place I can never return to… I will never see my family, my friends, little Doris with the gimpy leg…" Harry shrugged and sighed. "Tell me about you, Rebecca – I can call you that, right?"

"Sure… Well, I'm 23 years old, I come from Caprica City and went to the best schools around. My parents were rich and paid for the very best schools, the best tutors, the best clothes… I was expected to enter politics and become a trophy wife for a cause I had never heard of"

"Your parents would have loved to meet Dumbledore" Harry snorted. "So what made you join the navy then?"

"I used to read story after story of the great and heroic deeds of the Colonial Forces during the Cylon war. I wanted to join up, but my parents wouldn't let me do it – so I waited until I had finished my studies and tried to join the Academy. My parents found out and put the word out that I was mentally unstable so a lot of the recruiting stations turned me down or called my parents to take me home. Anyway, I took a flight out to Leonis and signed up as an enlisted person and ended up here" and Harry was silent for a long time before he replied.

"My parents were killed by a terrorist hell bent on destroying everything. I survived the attack and was hidden away for years. When I turned eleven, I was introduced to the magical world of my planet and learnt magic at one of the oldest schools in the world. I thought I would finally fit in there, but every school year alternated between being loved or being hated and the teachers did nothing or very little about it. None of us were surprised when the Ministry, our government, fell and we tried our best to fight it but most people were too lazy or just didn't believe how bad things really were. My friends and I starved for days or even weeks as we did what we could, but it was too late. We had one last great plan to end it all by going back in time to stop the war from ever happening, but it looks as if I was the only one that made it through. I was expecting to go back fifteen years, but I ended up here. Like I said to your Commander, I have to face being the last of my kind"

"I was going to say I am sorry, but I don't think that would cut it" Rebecca said.

"It wouldn't" said a voice from behind them, "But it's the best we can do. Crewman, I'd like a word with our guest here"

"Aye, Sir" she stood and saluted Adama before going back to work.

"That's the most you have talked about your past" Adama said as he sat in the newly vacated seat.

"Well… It's not something you will have a lot of reference for, is it?" Harry shook his head. "I like that girl – she seems kind of nice and has sort of the same background as me. Anyway, I feel you didn't pop by to stop and chat"

"Hmpf… You'd be right. I was wondering if you would join us as a crewmember on the _Galactica_" but, to Adama's surprise, Harry shook his head.

"It's a good offer, Commander, but I can't do it"

"Why?"

"I might be the last of my kind alive, at least from my prospective, but the oaths I swore still hold true. I can't suddenly give it all up and defect to a foreign power" Harry glanced at Adama. "I am sure as a military man, you'd understand oaths must be kept and tradition maintained. The Ministry might have fallen and I might be the last of my kind, Commander, but so long as _I_ remain alive, my country has not yet fallen"

"Were you an officer in your military?" Adama questioned. He was beginning to understand what made Harry be what he was, understand that he was scared from what had happened and understood very well that he still held many secrets.

"We didn't have a military as such, but I joined the Aurors which were a kind of special forces police squad. War is good for promotion and I quickly rose up through the ranks to become Division Commander. Because of that, and something I am not willing to talk about just yet, I went through the bloodiest of battles and saw the deaths of thousands up close. In the end, it came down to a dozen of us being chased back to our old school to do our ritual. The others were supposed to follow me, but either the spell ended or they sacrificed themselves to stop the Death Eaters getting through"

"Death Eaters?"

"Magical persons of pure evil. To gain entry to their ranks, you have to do unspeakable things to the weak and defenceless. At the end of the first war, many claimed they had been placed under mind control charms and worked their way into the deepest parts of the government – when it came time for the second war, they struck hard"

"I see… Mr Potter, I will come to the point then. I do not mind feeding and housing you on the _Galactica_, but there must be something that you can do for us in return. What can you do exactly with this magic of yours?"

"I can fly, cook, clean, make, repair, heal, kill… You name it, I can do it" he smirked. "I'm the magical swiss army knife"

"I think I understand the context of that one" Adama chuckled. As the two talked, there was an explosion and fire ripped through the far end of the hanger bay. Alarms suddenly started to scream as people yelled out warnings and yelled in terror and pain. Harry's expression clouded before he jumped up and, in an instant, appeared where the fire was and cast huge jets of water at the fire which died down a little. Within a few moments, crewmembers had found fire extinguishers and helped Harry to battle the blaze that was threatening a large pile of ammunition sat nearby.

"Where is Rebecca?" Harry asked one of the people dressed in orange overalls standing next to him.

"I don't know… She was working on the other side of the deck where the fire is worst" came the hurried reply. A chill came over Harry and he conjured a shield and, to the astonishment of people, walked through the flames to find her. It took a few minutes, but he found Rebecca's body on the floor near a hatchway that bore the label 'EXTERIOR HATCHWAY – CAUTION' in slightly faded letters. He could see she was massively injured with burns all over her body and blood seeping out of her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Harry was amazed when a scan of her revealed she was still alive, so he gathered her up in his arms and walked back out through the flames to where medical teams were treating the wounded. Putting her on a stretcher, he pushed his magic into partly healing the most serious injuries before almost fainting from using so much power. A weak gesture had him lean in close as Rebecca tried to whisper something before passing out. Harry told the medics what he thought was wrong, what he had done and Adama's firm command had them rush her straight to the Sickbay.

"Will she make it?" he asked.

"I don't know… I can heal people, but never had to do it on so many injuries at the same time" Harry replied shakily. "She said to tell you she saw a suicide bomber cause the explosion and that she jettisoned the nuclear warheads off the ship"

"That would explain the burst blood vessels" Adama sighed and looked around at the damage. "Can you help us deal with this?"

"Yes, but I'm tired both physically and magically. Give me a few hours sleep and I'll help you" Harry sighed and rubbed his head with his hands. "I have a price though"

"You want to be paid?" Adama's voice was incredulous.

"You are letting me stay on your ship, so that's payment enough… No, I have a different sort of price" Harry looked over where Rebecca had been taken through to the corridor and the Sickbay beyond. "That girl was cheated out of being an Officer in your military because people thought they knew better than her own self… My price for helping you is that she makes Officer"

"Is that all?" Adama asked.

"That and porn"

"Porn?" Adama's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Yeah, I haven't had a good wank for months" and Harry left the shocked Commander to return to his quarters and rest.

**A/N:**

**As always, I am never good at putting words down as a first chapter, so I'll just leave it here as it is for now…**


	2. Life and Trials

**Life and Trials**

"Chief, you have to understand this from my point of view" Harry spoke to Tyrol a few days later. "I can't put things back together or copy them unless I see pictures of them – I'd be copying just the outside"

"Ah, I see" Tyrol suddenly smiled and brought out some manuals for Harry to glance at. "What we need right now is a good beer whilst we work"

"Have one" Harry pointed to a wooden box that Tyrol knew had not been there seconds previous.

"I'm on duty" Tyrol explained.

"Commander Adama told you to treat me as an ally and to respect my customs. Its my custom to drink a beer when working on a major problem, so grab one and lets get on with it" but Tyrol seemed to still be debating. "Chief, if you don't take a beer, you are technically failing to obey Adama's direct orders – you want me to report you?"

"Well" Tyrol reached for a pair of bottles, "Seeing as the Commander left standing orders…"

#

"Sir, we've got a bit of an issue here" Adama's attention was gained by Lieutenant Gaeta.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure, Commander… I'm getting a faint echo of something right on the edge of DRADIS range, but its keeping the exact distance and speed as us. I can't tell if it's a ship or just this set about to go out of whack"

"Very well… Put it on the list of things for Mr Potter to repair. Flight Ops, order the CAP to close and investigate" Adama issued the order and picked up the handset built into the plotting table. "Attention, _Galactica_ – Pass the word for Colonel Tigh to contact CIC"

"Right here, Bill" Tigh said as he walked into the room.

"Huh – good timing. Saul, we've got an issue with the DRADIS showing an odd reading. Gaeta will fill you in… I want you to take control of it"

"Aye"

"Sir, CAP reports nothing on the edge of our range"

"Have them start a standard search pattern for the next twenty minutes" Adama said. "Colonel, you have the deck"

"Sir! I have the deck"

#

"I thought I'd find you here" Adama said as he stepped into Sickbay. Harry was sat in a chair next to Rebecca's bed where she was recovering from the decompression and internal injuries she had subjected herself to in order to save the ship. Harry had spent a lot of his time when not helping the Colonial fleet out down there. The current rumour was that he was madly in love with her, but Harry had dismissed those as stupid and had mentioned that the reason he was there was because she was his first friend after he had arrived.

"Commander" Harry nodded in acknowledgement, "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Perhaps… There is something on the very edge of DARDIS range that is keeping a constant distance from us. The Vipers and Raptors can't see it, so I was wondering if there was something that you could do to find it with your abilities"

"Have you checked your machine is working right?"

"Yes, but we're thinking it could be some kind of computer malfunction. Would you go out in a Raptor and take a look for yourself?" Adama asked.

"I can fly? In a spaceship?" Harry's eyes lit up with excitement.

"You are already on a spaceship" pointed out the amused older man.

"I know, but a real life spaceship? Oh wow…!" Harry turned to look at Rebecca's sleeping form. "Got to go, love… Adama wants me to go and fly a spaceship"

"Mr Potter, I am beginning to wonder if you are quite sane"

"A friend called Luna once told me that the only sane people are the crazy ones" Harry replied. Watching him bid the sleeping woman goodbye, Adama wondered why she was not brought round yet.

"Is there something that you can do?" he asked.

"If she had been stunned, then perhaps I could have woken her up without a second thought. However, we learnt long ago not to tamper with the mind of a coma patient because it could make things worse" and Harry had a far off look – as if remembering something painful.

"Happen to somebody close to you?"

"Katie Bell… We were never together, she was a lesbian after all, but she was one of my closest and dearest friends when I went to school. During one of the opening fights of the second war, she had been hit hard on the head by masonry. We got her to the healers fairly quickly, but somebody there did something stupid and messed around with her brain causing irreparable damage" Harry paused for a moment and sighed sadly. "I was the one to put her to sleep"

"You have a spell for that?"

"There is the Killing Curse for which I am the only known survivor and there is a spell which is meant to calm you down – use that enough times and the body simply shuts down and you slip away peacefully"

"I gather you have had to do these mercy killings a few times"

"More than a few, Commander" Harry replied darkly, "More than a few… With Katie, it was easier in a way – she had already given me permission to do it if all hope was gone for her" and then he sighed and shook his head. "What is it you need me to do precisely?"

# # # # #

"_Galactica_, Raptor 318. We've got to the target location – no sign of anything on our DRADIS set" the young pilot said.

"_Roger that… Let's see what our specialist can find out_" Adama's reply came crackling over the speakers.

"Copy" the pilot turned round to look at Harry. "Commander says to use your freakiness to take a look around"

"Sure" Harry felt uncomfortable at the use of the term most favoured by the Dursleys. First of all, he peered out of the Raptor in all directions and saw nothing but stars twinkling in the inky blackness. "Nothing that I can see… I'll try sensing anything out there" he said, and he closed his eyes and concentrated hard. "I can't sense anything near to me except the Raptor and you. If there was anything around, I would sense it within a few seconds"

"I thought so" the pilot flicked the switch on the wireless to send a message to _Galactica_.

"_Galactica_, Boomer – specialist says nothing that he can scan for shows up"

"_Acknowledged, Boomer. Bring your bird home – looks like a faulty sensor_" Adama said.

"Copy, _Galactica_. We're on our way" Boomer looked at Harry. "You better go back and strap in" and Harry frowned before nodding.

"Right" Harry replied and went back before looking over his shoulder and making a decision. "Don't say a word, but listen" he whispered into the ear of the officer manning what he had been told was the spy gear onboard. "You know I can read people's minds?" and the officer nodded as they went about their business. "Well, we've got a problem… Your pilot happens to be one of those robot things"

"Cylon?" the man whispered softly.

"Yeah… I don't think she knows, but I can stun her and you can fly this back, right?"

"Actually, I never took the piloting tests" the officer said. "Hey, can you stun her anyway? I can put out a call for help and have another pilot came over in a Raptor and spacewalk to us"

"Yeah" and Harry went back forward to stand next to Boomer. "Sorry" he said and stunned the pilot. "She's out"

"_Galactica_, Raptor 318. Request secured communications channel with Commander Adama"

"_This is _Galactica_ Actual_" Adama said after a brief pause.

"Sir, Harry has found out that Boomer is a Cylon. He's stunned her, but we're going to need somebody out here to spacewalk to us and bring the bird home"

"_Raptor 318, can you put Mister Potter on the line_?"

"Affirm, Actual… Standby one" and Harry was given a headset, put it on and spoke to Adama about what he had sensed and that he was under the impression the poor Cylon did not know she was such a thing…

"_Raptor 318, Actual… Could you make a jump if given the location_?" Adama asked.

"Affirm" the officer said. Adama then gave a series of numbers to be entered in the navigational computer before launching a Raptor to meet them there – he and the President had decided that Boomer should be taken into custody well away from the fleet before coming back just in case.

#

"… and I just got a flash of strong thought" Harry finished his tale.

"Are you able to read anybody's minds?" asked Adama, wondering about the security implications.

"Yes" Harry replied simply, "But I tend not to unless there is a reason. In the case of Boomer, though, she was broadcasting, for want of a better term, her thoughts very strongly indeed"

"If we brought everybody through Doc Cottle for a fake check up, could you read the minds of everybody and see if they are one of these skinjobs?" Tigh narrowed his eyes in both thought and suspicision.

"Fifty thousand plus…? Sure – so long as you don't mind waiting twenty years" Harry snarked.

"First of all, you need to scan the people on _Galactica_ because if we're infiltrated, we need to get a lid on it right away" Adama stopped the pair from arguing.

"You are still looking at a very long time" Harry said. "And there is another problem – if word gets out, then any human formed Cylons will have time to either leave or create a disaster"

"Maybe not" Adama and Harry looked at Tigh. "Its been a long time since we last held a Division Muster – it was one of the things we had planned to do after docking for the final time over Caprica. If we held Divisions on the starboard hanger deck, almost everybody will be there and we can get any Cylon infiltrators in one swoop"

"It's a risk" Adama noted, "But its worth it"

"It would be easier for me… I can just stand at the hatchway and scan people's minds" Harry shrugged. "I can paint them with a tracer charm and we can get them as they stand in their lines" but then he sighed and leant back. "Then we face another problem – I know the basics of mind healing and examinations for hidden programming, but not a lot more than that to be honest. I can maybe help Boomer, but if any other spy or enemy agent is doing it of their own free will…" Harry made a dismissive gesture.

"We should airlock the whole lot of them" Tigh said.

"What about the Doctor model that's apparently gone to great lengths to avoid following his orders" Adama shook his head. "I'll talk to the President about this, but so long as they have taken no life as a result of their actions, we'll just jail them as Prisoners of War"

"What about defectors or those that don't know they are spies?"

"That is where it is more difficult" Harry said. "I can stun them for a few hours at a time, but not indefinitely… I hesitate to ask, not knowing the situation, but could a prisoner exchange be made?"

"Bah…! The last time we tried to make contact with the toasters, they blasted our planets to hell" Tigh snorted. "If you are set on this, Bill, I'll back you all the way despite my views… Just lets not be hasty – Harry can put them in the Brig and, if we need to, throw them in the _Astral Queen_… I'm sure that Tom Zarek would _love_ the company"

"Who is he?" Harry frowned.

"Political prisoner, or so he claims, but in reality the man is a terrorist who is rebelling against the law"

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"

"Oh, for frak's sake, Bill… Not _another_ one"

'_ACTION STATIONS, ACTION STATIONS… SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE FLEET_'

"This is the Commander, Sit Rep" Adama snapped into the phone.

'_Sir, a contact just jumped into range. I have no beacons or transponders – suggest Cylon Baseship_" Gaeta spoke from the CIC.

"Alert the fleet to start jumping to emergency jump point Alpha 3 – launch all Vipers and prepare to engage the enemy"

"_Wait one… Sir, it's the _Olympic Carrier" Gaeta sounded excited. "_Commander, she is reporting serious damage to her life support systems_"

"Hold the jump, but tell all ships to keep their drives spooled up. Ask her Captain how he was able to evade the Cylons for all this time after going missing from us" Adama ordered. "Saul, get to CIC and take charge there" and Tigh nodded and quickly left.

"_Commander, the Captain on the _Olympic Carrier_ reports they had a drive failure and have been jumping all over trying to find us. Sir, I have to say that it doesn't sound like the Captain I remember_"

"Captured?"

"_Perhaps_"

"Commander, if you send me out in one of those shuttles of yours" Harry began, "Then I could apparate over to their Bridge with some Marines and make sure that it isn't a trap"

"Mr Gaeta, order the _Olympic Carrier _to heave to for inspection. If they do not comply, they will be treated as hostile and fired upon. Then, order the CAP to take station on its six and ready a Raptor to go in three minutes" he hung back up. "How long do you need to prepare?"

"I'll be there before the Marines are" Harry smirked and apperated away.

"I wish he would stop that" Tigh grumbled.

#

Within hours of the _Olympic Carrier_'s return to the fleet, the Vice President had been further arrested on more charges of treason, several people from the fleet had been detained as spies and rumours spread throughout the fleet. The reason for the change in the voice was because the previous Captain had had a heart attack and died – the First Officer had taken over and was shaken to see Vipers coming at him. Harry still spent his time either in his quarters or by Rebecca's bedside whilst she was still in the recovery part of Sickbay. A couple of the pilots, mainly Starbuck and Apollo made sure he ate something, but he was otherwise just left alone to watch. When asked about it by Adama, Chief Tyrol would only reply that when everybody had been pressing Harry for details, Rebecca had been the only one who had approached him quietly and not treated him as a freak show. There seemed to be something between them, but as Harry had only had one discussion with the woman, nobody especially knew what to make of it. It wasn't until the third week after the incident when she woke up to see Harry sitting by her bedside.

"Hey" he smiled at her, "You were giving people quite a bit of worry. You've been here for a long time"

"How… long…?" she croaked out.

"Three weeks" Harry said. "We've been through a lot since you went for a nap, but things are getting back to normal once more" and Rebecca winced slightly in pain. "Too much?"

"Yeah… It hurts…"

"Well, I could get a Doctor or Nurse" Harry glanced around the area, "Or I could…" he waggled his eyebrows.

"You can heal people?"

"I'm a man of many talents" Harry chuckled. "Hermione used to call me a Swiss Army Knife – a sort of foldable knife that had many attachments. I can't heal everything, I never took that course during Auror training, but I can fix a few broken bones, stop bleeding and even numb the pain for a few hours"

"Right now" Rebecca groaned, "I'll take anything" and Harry withdrew his wand and cast a couple of spells to help her. "So what have I missed?"

"Well there are human looking robots running around your fleet, the Vice President was a traitor, Starbuck went an entire day without drinking and you made the rank of Ensign"

"WHAT?"

"Adama asked me to help around the fleet with creating parts and stuff like that in exchange for staying on _Galactica_. I replied that my price was that you became an officer"

"Why?"

"Because you were the only one that never just outright demanded to know stuff about me. You treated me like a person and, admittedly, you are fairly easy on the eye" Harry smirked before standing up and moving towards the medical office to find a Nurse or Doctor.

#

As time went on, Harry grew more and more to be accepted by the crew and the fleet – the population learning that Harry had his quirks that seemed odd but which made sense to him. Adama, however, did have to ask him to not sit on the flight deck in a deck chair drinking Butterbeer after he had scared a training flight of new Viper pilots, though he was sometimes spotted by the CAP perched on the hull just sat with his legs crossed and eyes shut. Adama had been about to speak to him about it when Tigh stopped him and suggested that he might be doing some kind of religious thing or communicating with magic.

"So then what happened?" asked Starbuck. Harry had joined some of the senior pilots in a kind of poker game that he was occasionally good at, getting slightly drunk and swapping stories.

"We were about to walk away when Hermione just turns and decks him right in the nose – damn she could hit" Harry chuckled with a smile. "Malfoy couldn't tell anybody because then he'd be admitting to using racist language" and then his tone grew cold. "I killed him later"

"At school?" Lee Adama's eyes widened in surprise.

"No… When I was with the Aurors, we raided a place that was keeping prisoners and it turned out to be far worse. They were cutting apart the children to use their organs in spells, but they were being kept alive during the process" Harry slammed his drink in one go. "He came out from behind a door and I just blasted him to pieces without a second's thought. He was one of the few I took down in cold blood"

"Did your unit send you to a shrink?" asked Kara.

"Yeah, but that never worked – he tried to kill me during our third meeting"

"Guess you've seen a lot of action then"

"Yeah…" Harry looked at his cards, made a decision and called Kara's bluff. "I call"

"Have you read my mind or something?" the pilot grumbled as Harry collected his winnings.

"Yes"

"That's cheating!"

"Ah, but your rule book said nothing about mind reading" Harry smirked. "No, actually, I just learned to read people very closely… It has been a skill that has served me well" he added with a shrug.

"You know, I asked the XO about letting you try the Viper simulator down on the starboard hanger bay" Lee spoke up. "Its more designed for what should have been the museum, buts it's a great tool to train people"

"Great… I loved to fly" Harry sat back in the chair and smiled as he remembered fonder days. He told the pilots and ECOs about flying around on a broom, how the wind would rush through his air as he played Quidditch. Kara, naturally, thought this sounded great fun and asked if she could do it – Harry had to turn her down nicely as there was only the one broomstick.

"If we don't get an alert, I can take you through it myself" Kara said, switching back into what Harry called 'Starbuck Mode'.

"I used to love flying… Well, until the dark days of the war. Still, I suppose flying is flying" Harry looked at the time and decided enough was enough. Although he did not hold an official rank in the Colonial Fleet, he still drew a pay chit and ate in the Wardroom or the mess hall depending on his mood, he was treated with great respect and the rumour was that even Tigh had started to like him after bottles of Ambrosia started appearing in his cabin. At that moment, though, he was a little tired and decided that he'd nod off for a couple of hours before he thought about popping down to the Hanger Deck and seeing if the Chief needed anything repairing or duplicating. If that failed to do anything, he thought about seeing Starbuck for that simulator time and, if she couldn't help him, he'd apparate to Cloud 9 and sit under the trees by the little pond that always soothed his nerves. That evening, he was going to meet Rebecca for dinner in the wardroom before she took him to one of the civilian ships that was showing a theatre performance – the few friends he had on _Galactica_ had been joking that he was being taken on a date. Harry had hesitated and then blushed a bright red before trying and failing to change the subject to cheers and jeers – making a tactical retreat to his cabin and hiding under the covers.

#

"I'm glad you came" Rebecca was wearing a uniform with a brown sash over the jacket with a single medal of some kind along with rank insignia. Harry, on the other hand, had chosen to wear Auror dress robes complete with cloak that made most of _Galactica_'s pilots also want one and he chuckled at how childish they sometimes were. That being said, they could also be the kindest people that one could hope to meet.

"Well it was either this or another night of drinking with the pilots" Harry shrugged, "And I haven't had a steak in years"

"Really?"

"Being on the run for half a decade meant our finances didn't stretch to a steak supper at the Hilton" Harry chuckled and sat down at the table. He enjoyed eating in the wardroom because, despite being on the run and down on many supplies, the stewards still managed to put out a first class dining service with starched tablecloths and shining silverware. Most of the officers were surprised at the effort they had gone to, but none of them would reveal it was thanks to Harry and his magical conjuring skills.

"So, how was your day?" Rebecca asked.

"Well, I cleaned out Starbuck at that version of Poker, helped the Chief fix some Vipers, made new parts, helped Cottle do some medical exams and then went swimming"

"_Swimming_? We don't have a swimming pool onboard"

"You do now… In _completely_ unrelated news, you've lost a small supply cupboard"

"I'm not sure I want to ask anything else on that subject" Rebecca laughed. They chatted for a while before their meals were served – soup, steak and cheesecake which Harry found delicious. The steak had come with giant sized chips which was another one of Harry's little foibles – chips the size of an aircraft carrier. As they ate, Harry found himself committing everything he could see about Rebecca to memory and found there was a place for her in his heart. Perhaps she could be one of his greatest friends in this new life he had found himself in, though he deeply missed those that had sacrificed everything for him. He sometimes had been known to turn to his side and ask Hermione or Susan for their opinion on something, find them not there, and then go into a terrible mood and sit by his electric blue egg that still sat in a Viper repair bay. That, he mused, was another subject completely… If it was a thing of magic, why had it not vanished by now? He had spent hours scanning it with every spell he knew and came to the conclusion that it was just… _there_. The only thing he could think of is that some of his friends had caused a delay whilst the others made a magical construct to send Harry through and save him at the cost of their own lives. When he realised this, he swore up such a storm that reports came in from the CAP they could hear him – Adama and Tigh had been inclined to believe them.

"Tell me more about this play" Harry requested as the pair walked down to the hanger deck.

"Its called _Fleet and Flotilla_ and is one of the classics"

"It sounds… interesting" Harry said.

"Ah, I guess you've never read it. It's about two people who become lovers despite being from two different lands. One is a naval officer and the other is a princess who is being trained to take the throne in a few years because of her dying parents. I won't spoil it for you, but trust me when I say it's a good one" Rebecca chuckled and handed their passes to a crewman who ticked their names off a list and directed them towards a shuttle. It was a boxy little thing, a left over from the First Cylon War Harry had been told, but the craft and others like it had been purposed into serving as a sort of bus service between the various ships in the fleet complete with a schedule. "You like this one?" Rebecca had noticed Harry drinking in all the details of the cabin.

"It isn't bad – not as cool as a Raptor, mind you, but Raptors are awesome" and then he shrugged. "Vipers are, of course, better" Harry added.

"Its funny"

"What is?"

"How fascinated by what you see around you" Rebecca smiled.

"Where I am from" Harry wondered internally if that was actually correct, "We've only really set up stations around our planet. We did go to the moon a few times, but then there were budget cuts so that had to stop. Of course, many countries from Earth sent out robot probes to other planets to explore. We even used one to take a family portrait"

"A what?"

"Picture of almost all of the planets this probe could see – we showed up as a pale blue dot" Harry looked out the windows of the shuttle as it was taken up to the flight deck. "Gave you a sense of prospective"

"Of what?"

"How big everything is in the universe. You know, I am the only one of my kind to get the answer to the immortal question"

"What is that?" asked Rebecca with a raised eyebrow.

"If aliens exist"

"I'm not an alien"

"From my point of view, you are" and Rebecca found she couldn't fault Harry's logic. Once in space, Harry pressed his face up against the windows to look at all of the different types of ship that housed what was left of a mighty civilisation. It was the general opinion, though not said in his hearing, that it was very cute of him to do it, though Starbuck, Adama and Tigh had a vague idea as to why Harry loved the vastness of space – the abuse from his relatives. He had yet to tell Rebecca the full story about that, but knew it would come up sooner rather than later. "So anyway" he said as he turned back to her, "Tell me a bit more about this play…"

# # # # #

The relative quietness without Cylons appearing had made Adama decide to take the fleet into a nearby nebula for a few days to let the ships undertake some heavy repairs and to allow people to rest – the first time since they had fled the Colonies. Standards were kept up, of course, and the CAP was always there with Vipers sat in the tubes with the pilots inside – cockpit canopies ready to close in a few seconds for a fast launch. Harry, in the meantime, was sitting in the _Galactica_'s chapel with his eyes closed and thinking hard. He was in no way a Christian, Harry was fairly certain God wouldn't let him in after what he'd done, but he found the place calming and allowed him the needed opportunity to clear his mind and organise his thoughts. That being said, he respected the thoughts and traditions of his friends in the fleet and their beliefs – helping Rebecca and a few of the pilots get to prayer services if they ran a little late.

"I heard I would find you here" a soft spoken voice brought Harry out of his business and he blinked to see Laura Roslin standing before him.

"Madam President" he nodded, "How can I help you?"

"I was told you have come up with ways to present evidence at the trial of Baltar" she said.

"Yes, but I am not sure if your legal system would allow it"

"It will… One of the perks of being President"

"Ah, I guess so. Well, there are two ways of doing this. The first is one you do yourself by thinking of the memory and extracting it with a non verbal spell. The other is for somebody to scan a subject's mind and forcefully extract the memories to be put into a pensieve to dive into"

"_Dive_?"

"Yes, though a slight adjustment can allow the memory to be projected to many people at the same time. We occasionally used this method in criminal trials and to argue points of law" Harry explained.

"Could you demonstrate this for the Commander and the Quorum?" Roslin asked Harry, taking a seat as she spoke.

"I would be happy to do so" Harry replied. "In somewhat related matters, what are we going to do about those Cylons that did not believe or know they were such?"

"Airlock them – the only good Cylon is a dead one"

"Madam President, I did not identify them just so you could execute them later on. Some of them have done outstanding service for your people – one has even disobeyed direct orders from his Cylon commanders… I need time to come up with a way of removing the programming from those who will it"

"And if some do not?"

"Then we wait until the next Cylon attack and broadcast a message requesting a truce and prisoner exchange if possible. The returning prisoners can tell their comrades that you treated them well, saw to their needs and it might just allow them to change the minds of other Cylons" Harry sighed. "Madam President, would you rather be on the run for decades or have the chance to end this war and go home?"

"Our homes were destroyed by nuclear weapons and our planets turned into atomic wastelands" Roslin said sharply. "I want the Cylons eliminated"

"So…?" Harry raised an eyebrow in a mixture of amusement and confusion. "If there is a peace between you and the Cylons, we can jump back and I might be able to help you. I get that there is hate between your peoples, but have you ever thought of just outright apologising?

"You want us to apologise for defending ourselves?"

"No… For keeping a race on sentient creatures as slaves. Anyway, if you can return home… I can use my magic to clean the air in places and to cleanse the soil – you could start again and rebuild your lost civilisation"

"How… How could we repay you?" Roslin was gobsmacked.

"Just give me a load of money and a place to live" Harry got up and walked to the hatch before turning back. "And I never want to pay taxes" and he left Roslin to think about what he offered her. She had seen first-hand the miracles that he was able to perform with his abilities in magic, seen the hope that he had inspired in the people of the fleet and she couldn't help but wonder if she could lead their people home to settle on the Colonies again. As she was thinking, the hatch opened and Harry walked back in and cast a spell on her.

"What did you do to me?"

"With all the work I have been doing, I forgot to cure your cancer" he shrugged and then looked out the hatch to one of the Marines. "I think you might need Doctor Cottle"

#

"_WHAT_?" Adama shouted in surprise. "Go over that again"

"If we treat the Cylons who want to return to their own kind with respect and good manners, its possible they could change the opinions of their models. Remember, the Four known as Simon has gone to great lengths to avoid carrying out its orders, one of the Sixes thinks the war is a mistake…" Harry shrugged. "At the very least, Commander, you could find yourselves being left alone in peace to find a new world to settle. At best, you could go back home again to at least one of the planets of your Colonies and start to rebuild. If your military is anything like ours, I doubt everyone was killed – there will be shelters and bunkers"

"The Cylons hate us with every fibre of their being"

"Yet you have two of them that have served you well" Roslin pointed out from her place behind the desk. "Commander, at least send a message the next time a Cylon task force is seen offering to meet with them"

"I am not going on some damned quest"

"You don't have to" Harry was beginning to feel the start of a migraine. "I have spoken to the Cylons and they seem very reasonable people to me – bar their want of mass genocide. Two of them, Boomer and Simon, want to stay with the fleet. The Six that has given us some limited information might very well want to do the same, but I'm not certain yet… The others want to go back to their kind, and they have at least given me what they say is a valid communications code to talk to the Raiders to make them return to base and spread the message to their High Command. I don't know about you, Commander, but one planet is better than no planets at all"

"You're right…" Adama sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Mr Potter, I apologise… I've been looking to the safety and security of this fleet for too long now without a break"

"You want me to take over for a day?" Harry chuckled.

"Do you know how to manage a Battlestar?"

"No, but neither does Colonel Tigh and he does alright"

"Touché" Adama sighed in defeat. "You know what I would love for shore leave? A nice log cabin with nothing around me, no sound except the wind and a coal and wood fire… Just me, that and a few good books"

"Well I can't give you that, not yet, but I did arrive here with some of my potions on me" Harry shrugged. "I could let you take a sip of dreamless sleep and then pop you to your quarters for a good long sleep"

"Is there anything you can't do?" Adama raised a tired and yet bemused expression.

"Play the violin. I wouldn't say I was bad, but sometime recordings of me were played as a form of psychological warfare"

"Maybe we should broadcast that to the Cylons and demand their unconditional surrender" Roslin smiled. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no…" she added quickly as she saw the look Harry and Adama shared.

#

"All rise" the President's assistant, Harry couldn't remember his name, called out and the assembled people rose from their seats as Roslin walked through the hatch and strode to the podium. The trial of Gaius Baltar was about to take place after a long search for somebody to represent him which ended with him deciding to do his own defence. As this was such an important thing, the risk was taken in allowing the trial to be broadcast over the wireless so that everybody could hear what was going on.

"You may be seated" Roslin said as she sat down. "Members of the Court, Citizens of the Twelve Colonies… This trial is to be held to look into the matter of the treason by Gaius Baltar before the Cylons attacked. The Prosecution has furnished evidence that he allowed himself to be seduced by a Cylon agent and gave her access to the computers that controlled our defences. By chance, that agent has been captured amongst the fleet but has decided to defect to us and has given us a lot of this information. With information coming from passengers aboard the _Olympic Carrier_, defections and evidence gained by Harry Potter, it was decided to try Gaius Baltar for his crimes. Mr Dredd, you may begin"

"Thank you, Madam President" the man rose and walked around his table and paced for a moment before beginning. "Gaius Baltar is a damned fool and a traitor to us all. He allowed himself to be seduced by a beautiful woman, gave her access to the defence mainframe and allowed the Cylons to almost completely destroy our race. I call the Cylon Model known as Number Six to the stand" and a tall blonde walked in a casual ladies suit to a large chair and sat in it quietly and calmly.

"Good Morning" she said.

"Good Morning… I have introduced you as a Six, but do you have a name you prefer to go by?"

"Natasi Sixtus"

"Very well. Miss Sixtus, can you please tell the court your assignment with regards to Gaius Baltar and the Colonial Defence System?"

"Certainly. I was activated, for want of a better term, and sent to Caprica several years before our attack. There, I was to pretend to be Gaius Baltar's lover and gain his confidence so he would let my 'company' have inside knowledge of how the systems worked so we could supposedly bid on the next round of contracts. Of course, nobody knew the real plan except us Cylons and, if I may say so, it was very easy to do so. You Humans sometimes fail to see the blindingly obvious in front of you"

"_Yes…_ Miss Sixtus, how did you get involved with Mr Baltar?"

"Showed him various parts of my body and then told him my company wanted to work with him so they had inside knowledge of the next defence upgrades. Cylon High Command had decided that it was the best way to take down your defences and disable your ships before we took them out"

"How was this to be done?"

"A piece of code inside the systems of your ships and ground stations. I do not know much about it, due to security concerns from my people, but I suspect Dr Amarak will be able to tell you more" Natasi said.

"Thank you" and the questioning went on for over an hour and a half before Dredd was done.

"No questions" Baltar weakly said.

"May I say something?"

"Please"

"I realise that none of you will believe me when I say this, but I was merely following orders when I did what I did. I know that I will face trial for my actions, but I want to apologise all the same for it… I have come to believe that the war is wrong"

"Thank you, you may step down"

"To where?"

"It means you may leave" Dredd smiled slightly. The Cylon stepped down and away from the podium to be escorted by a pair of Marines. "Madam President, I call Doctor Amarak to the stand" and an elderly man rose from his seat and walked firmly to the stand where he was allowed to sit down. "You are Doctor Amarak of the Caprican Cybernetics Institute and an advisor to President Adar?"

"I am"

"Doctor, could you please explain, for the benefit of the court, what those positions involved?"

"Certainly…" the man, although elderly, was a firm speaker with a commanding voice that Harry found enticing. "The position of advisor to President Adar came about because I was, and I suppose still am, top of my field in Cybernetics as well as computer research. Naturally, the President would want the top people to give him answers and reports on anything he so wished from computer technology right down to the brothels on Tauron" the last gained a few giggles from the public and the crew of _Galactica_. "As for my other work, the CCI was commissioned to come up with a new system to link information between ships for better coordination between ships during battle. At the same time, things would be automated greatly to speed up response times to queries from anybody onboard ships and smaller craft. We were about halfway through this project when the Colonial Fleet informed us we were no longer needed and that they had decided to go with Gaius Baltar's CNP system instead. This got us interested because, although a brilliant and gifted computer engineer and cybernetic researcher, he had never shown much interest in developing a program on a grand scale such as this. We requested a copy of the CNP to test on the grounds of the fact we had concerns, but we were denied on many occasions from somebody in the Colonial Navy. Luckily, a Viper crashed which had the program installed and, because the crash happened on Caprica, the planetary government sent the wreckage to us to go over the systems to see what went wrong as was normal"

"And what went wrong, Doctor?" asked Dredd.

"His computer systems contained lines of code that permitted the Viper to be controlled remotely. When activated, it would have cut off communications and the pilot died without being able to call for help or even eject"

"Can you explain what you mean by remote control?"

"The Viper would have been flown by somebody on the ground and done whatever this person wanted it to do. In this instance, it was flown in such a way that it would appear to be pilot error to anybody watching from an outside point of view. This appeared to have been going on for some time – as much as several months I believe" Amarak sighed. "I did attempt to alert everybody that I could think of, but I was shut down almost as quickly as I spoke up about it and I could never figure out why. Twelve months later, somebody in the military hand delivered a copy of the CNP that was designed to work with Battlestars, Destroyers, Cruisers, other large ships and ground defence systems. I tested this against the code from the crashed Viper and found almost an exact match – the code was near identical in the intention of taking over everything and shutting down every major system"

"Doctor, how sure can you be that it was Doctor Baltar that did this?"

"As certain as anything. Because the attacks happened over a period of time, I had a few hours to examine reports coming in from ships that had suffered full or partial failures. They transmitted the fact they only broke down when Cylons sent a signal that activated the code – it was at that moment I realised the Cylon code was identical to the code in the CNP. The only ships that were fully operational were those either running in standard manual mode or had shut down their networks before their weapons could be turned upon their fellow vessels. I did try to put out a general call for ships to turn off their CNP controlled systems, but I think it was already too late. When I heard of a general evacuation, I grabbed everything I could and boarded the _Olympic Carrier_"

"Thank you Doctor Amarak. One thing more… What was the name of the Pilot that was killed in the Viper"

"Zak… Zak Adama"

#

"Colonel, you have the deck" Commander William Adama turned and walked out of the CIC – pausing only to grab the sidearm from a passing Marine.

"Oh shit…" Tigh muttered. They had been listening to the trial whilst on duty in the CIC and Tigh had an idea what his old friend planned to do. "Connect me with the hanger deck and put Harry Potter on the line"

#

"Well, that was interesting…" Roslin said as Harry seemingly popped from one side of the hanger to the other and then stunned Adama and Starbuck before either could raise their pistols.

"Madam President, I will explain later" Harry said and then floated the pair behind him and walked off.

"Very well… Mr Dredd, you may resume"

"No further questions"

"Mr Baltar?"

"Doctor, you say that you examined my CNP program at length – how deeply?" Baltar rose and moved around his table to perch on the edge.

"I broke it all down to the individual pieces of code"

"Did you share this information with anybody?"

"My team knew what I was doing, maybe a few others… Not entirely sure" Amarak replied.

"Are you aware that the CNP was classified as being Top Secret?"

"Yes"

"And yet you essentially stole the CNP programme and took it apart and shared the results?"

"I did… There was great concern at what was happening. You were a better than average scientist in computers and cybernetics, but the fact you came up with such a thing like this in less then six months is nothing short of stupid. I did what I tried to do to alert people in the Colonial Armed Forces, but they were either too blind or stupid to listen. I prayed I was wrong about you, but all that happened was I was proven right"

"But you took possession of the software that was classified Top Secret" Baltar smirked.

"Yes… The difference is that my security clearance was, and still is I presume, much higher then yours. How you got detailed information on the systems of our military is astonishing and I do hope that I find out"

"But I didn't know she was an enemy agent" Baltar said defensively. "Anyway, all she told me afterwards was…" he stopped as his eyes widened at the realisation that he'd never told anybody and had just admitted in open court he knew Cylons had taken human form and had never admitted it to the President or Commander Adama. "Madam President, I have no further questions for Doctor Amarak. In addition, I rest my case and wish to change my pleas to guilty and ask for the firing squad. There is little point pleading for my life, the evidence is stacked up against me that I might as well just be executed and be done with it"

"Well, I suppose that was rather quick and easy" Roslin said. "Gaius Baltar, you are found guilty of all your crimes. It is my judgement that you be taken from this place to the brig onboard the Battlestar _Galactica_ pending a time that a firing squad can be arranged. This court is dismissed"

#

"He was responsible for the death of my son… All this time Kara thought it was because he had no aptitude for flying, but it was _his_ Viper that was being tampered with…" Adama downed his fifth drink of the night. "I'm going to take great pleasure in commanding that firing squad myself" he added bitterly. "Kara is already looking forward to serving in it along with Lee and Saul"

"I know how you feel" said Harry. "I had to deal with the death of a loved one, found the traitor and executed the bastard myself"

"That Katie woman?"

"Yeah… The relationship between myself, Hermione, her and the others went beyond friendship and beyond family" Harry looked over at the clock on the bulkhead wall. "I better get to my place for a rest – helping the Chief repairing some of your battle damage. Given the state of it, I'm going to need to use all of my magical reserves"

"Is it that bad?" Adama asked.

"Some of your supports have big enough holes to fly a Viper through" Harry shrugged and sighed. "If you hadn't had me appear, they would have lasted two… Maybe three years before they failed – its almost as if the ship was built with people cutting corners"

"So very bad" Adam nodded in understanding. "I hear from Lee that you are picking up the basics of Viper piloting well"

"Aye, well flying is flying when it comes down to it. Starbuck is going to take me out in a real one soon in exchange for lessons on a broomstick"

"You have one of those?"

"I have three on me, but I wasn't about to let Starbuck try it without me"

"Mmm. Speaking of which, I hear that she isn't the only one of my crew that wants to try something of yours" Adama laughed liked a rolling thunder storm.

"Oh?" Harry frowned and tried to think of any of the other pilots that wanted to try the few magical items that appeared in this world with him.

"Yes, that young crewwoman you had me make an Officer… Rumour has it she wants to frak you rotten"

"Rumours are most often wrong"

"In my military career, rumours often have truth in them. She is free to do as she wishes, of course as you are not military"

"We're not together" Harry blushed red and shook his head, "We're just good friends"

"That's how it starts" Tigh spoke up from the corner of the room where he had been silent all the time.

"Might I remind you two that I am a Wizard with the ability to turn you into frogs? Also, I can kill you with my brain. Besides, I don't think she has any romantic intentions towards me"

"You'd be surprised… Look, son, take some advice from an old man like me and try asking her out on a real date. From what you have told me and Saul about your life, you deserve some happiness"

"I don't swing that way"

"He said 'happiness' you godsdamned fool… Not 'a penis'… Honestly, Bill, where do we find them?"

"I do believe the general idea is behind the sofa" Adama said. "Right, well, I'm off to bed and I'll see you two in the morning before breakfast"

"I better get up to CIC and see to the watch" Tigh grunted as he stood up.

"Drinking on duty?" Adama frowned. "Saul, I thought we had seen the last of this"

"Harry?" Tigh gestured at Harry who hit him with a Sobering Charm. "You know, I'm beginning to love magic" and he left Adama's cabin. Adama was about to say something to Harry but found the wizard had popped away.

"Frak me… I'm getting too old for this crap"

#

"_Viper 212, you are cleared for launch_"

"Copy that" Harry replied. After a couple of hours of intense training, Starbuck had decided that Harry was ready to fly a Viper for real. Normally, she would have given him several months of training in the classroom, but seeing as he could break the Viper and simply repair it with a wave of his wand, she'd elected to put him in a cockpit after trying him on the game simulator. A moment later, the catapult shot him down the launching tube and out into the vastness of space. "I have got to get me one of these!" he said.

"_Settle down, nugget_" Starbuck formed up alongside Harry. "_You did well in the simulator, but a simulator is no substitute for real flying. Now, turn to port and steer 230_"

"Coming left to 230" Harry moved the control stick to the left and the Viper turned sharply – forcing Harry into correcting his attitude with the thrusters.

"_Try not using the stick so hard next time… That is a mistake everybody does the first time in real flight_"

"Sorry"

"_Never mind – now, watch me doing this and we'll try you on them_" Starbuck then spent the next hour and a half taking Harry through Viper combat moves and doing a little target practice with the laser system that was still attached to the Mk II Vipers. They were just about to head back to the fleet and land when something glinting caught Harry's eye.

"Starbuck, break left NOW" and Starbuck responded instantly to the bellowed order out of instinct and broke hard left as a Cylon Raider screamed right through where she had been.

"Galactica_, Starbuck… Cylon Raider at my location! Request the CAP. Alright, nugget, time to head back to the barn_"

"That's a bad idea… If you can get it to fly past me, I can knock it out completely and the brass can have something shiny to look at"

"_Its too risky_"

"Kara, we have enemy defectors onboard. If I can knock this thing out, they can help us disarm the bloody thing before it wakes up again. Imagine being able to go through its memory and look where the Cylons are and will be"

"_Fine, but if I die, I'm going to kill you_"

"I used to do this all the time with dragons. Right, let the Cylon get behind you and then steer right towards me and veer off three seconds before impact"

"_Are you insane_?"

"Nope… Just the best chance of some intel"

"_This is _Galactica _Actual to Starbuck – do what Harry says… We need the information stored in the toaster's memory banks_"

"_Sir, I just hate being told what to do by a nugget_"

"Kara, could a nugget take a nuclear warhead right between the eyes and live? I've racked up more kills then anyone alive… If we do this, you get a nice medal, time off and free booze"

"_Fine… Just don't miss_"

#

"Commander, Colonel, Madam President… May I present you with the Raider Mk II" Harry dissolved the covering with a wave of his hand. There, on its very small but strong legs, sat a Cylon Raider on the starboard hanger deck where it had been placed for safety reasons in case it awoke before disarming was complete.

"She's about the same size as the original version" Tigh said.

"Still a tough son of a bitch" Adama grunted as he looked at the crescent shape the wings made. "They've put the cannons next to the head here… They must have figured putting them on the tips of the wing arms was too great a risk in losing a target"

"Yeah? Well, they're still going to go down" Tigh paced around. "Was Gaeta able to download from the computer on this bird?"

"I think so… He had trouble getting into the computer core until he got help from one of the Sixes"

"What? Bill, tell me you are kidding me… You let a toaster in here?"

"I couldn't risk Gaeta messing up and wiping everything – my call, Saul" and Tigh muttered an oath before crouching and looking under it.

"I'll say this for the bastards" he grunted, "They've got the right amount of stores for the size of the bird"

"I managed to scan it and give a complete readout to Doctor Cottle – he thinks it might be possible to infect the Cylon craft with some sort of virus that affects its thought pathways. Once infected, we destroy the craft and let it download into a new copy" Tyrol shrugged. "Hopefully, this mental instability will be passed on to the other Cylons" he added.

"I did not capture it to have the poor thing be used in biological warfare" Harry shook his head. "We need the information contained in its memory banks, yes, but we can also use it to send a message to the Cylon High Command that we wish to discuss terms of peace"

"I agree with both arguments" Roslin said. "Whilst the ability to send an offer of peace is noble, perhaps we should still have the plan of this virus as a back up"

"No" Harry said simply. "I did not agree to help you just to be a part of genocide" he felt the anger start to boil deep inside him. "I have seen what that can do to a civilisation, Madam, and I will not be a part of that. If you try to do this, I will stop you. The Raider is technically alive which means it is a Prisoner of War. I might not know a lot of your laws, but I bet there is something about the mistreatment of prisoners. Now, we can have our defectors disarm the Raider, order it to turn over any command codes it may have to unlock encrypted files and then issue it new orders to return to its home base and deliver the message"

"Can't believe this, Bill, but I'm not too happy about this myself. Seemed simple when it was just robots, but now they have feelings…" Tigh shrugged. "Commander, I have to report that senior members of the Twelve Colonies are planning to use a POW in a campaign of biological warfare" and, tough and demanding as he was, Saul Tigh was a loyal Colonial Officer and knew how to do things by the book…

"Alright, Saul, you've made your point" Adama nodded slowly. "I don't like the idea either, I have a lot of reasons to hate the Cylons after all, but I'm not going to let that cloud my judgement. The Raider will be given the chance to return home as a gesture of goodwill with a message from us. _HOWEVER_, we will still fight them until a ceasefire has been made prior to peace talks. Colonel Tigh, I want a plan of action ready for command approval no later than eighteen hundred this evening. Chief Tyrol, try to work out if this Raider needs repairing and see to it. Madam President…?"

#

"… and that is when I kind of lost my temper" Harry finished.

"Wasn't you even a little bit afraid?" asked Rebecca.

"No, not really" Harry replied as he sipped the tea, "I've faced down far worse monsters"

"The President is not a monster, Harry"

"That's what they said about Khan, Hitler and Trump" at his friend's blank look, he added "They were three evil dictators that ruled with an iron fist. Look, Rebecca, I've seen what happens when a group embraces the darkest depths – not going to let that happen again. You know, I had something to ask you earlier, but now it seems not the right time…"

"Just ask me anyway" Rebecca smiled.

"Okay, fine… Do you want to go out with me?"

"Oh… Um… Er…" Rebecca lost the ability to speak for a moment. "Uh, sure, I guess"

"Great, um, that's… _Great_" Harry said lamely. "Look, I've seen a lot of things that nobody should, Rebecca, so I'm sometimes prone to outbursts. If that happens, its nothing personal" he stopped talking and Rebecca could see him having a flashback to something that had happened in his past.

"Bad memory?"

"A good one, but the results ended up bad"

"Tell me"

"I was thinking about one of my closest friends, Lavender. She came from a great home, loving parents… That all changed when she was attacked by a werewolf and, although she wasn't turned into one, she was heavily scared. For years after the attack, she was made fun of and attacked for no reason at all – became a joke to almost anybody and when she snapped back, they feared her. Both of us were damaged by war, Rebecca, and I'm not sure that I'll ever be the same"

"Did you sleep with her?"

"Couple of times, but then I ended up here before anything major happened"

"Did you love her?"

"Not sure" Harry admitted, "But then again when you are on the run from a genocidal maniac there is little time to think about love"

"I'm guessing that you cared for her" Rebecca undid the front of her uniform jacket as she was now off duty.

"We all cared for each other" Harry replied flatly, "But they seemed to care for me more then what I knew. Sometimes, I wish I could go back there and bring them here or at least return with a squadron of Vipers – Voldemort would have pissed himself at the sight of those"

"Can't you do it?" asked Rebecca with a gleam in her eye.

"No… Where I am from… Was from… There is magic in the very air and I felt the magic flow into me as I came through whatever portal the others used. What magic was not used in destroying the planet entered my body and charged me to massive levels – that's how I know I can't go back"

"But if you could, would you?"

"Yes… I love being here and spending time with you and the friends I made, but Earth is my home and I'd like to go back and go down alongside my friends"

"That sounds rather a stupid thing to say" Rebecca chuckled.

"You've never faced an enemy up close, have you?"

"No"

"I have… When you fight up close and personal with people you trust, you form a special bond – a spirit of will that is either defeated or is victorious" he sighed. "It's a hard concept to explain really"

"I think I understand"

"No, Rebecca" Harry said quickly and firmly as he reached for the bottle of what looked like whiskey, "I hope that you never do…"

#

"Harry?" Starbuck was walking down the corridor towards him.

"Before you say anything, I want to apologise to you"

"Okay… Not what I was expecting"

"Figured… You were in charge of that training mission and I went against your orders. It was just that…" Harry sighed in frustration.

"You thought you was back with your friends" Starbuck's expression softened.

"Yeah… I am still finding it hard to fit in around here"

"Well, anyway, the rest of us have come up with a callsign for you – Seeker"

"That's funny"

"Oh?"

"Remember what I told you about Quidditch and what position I played?"

"Missionary?"

"You know, Kara, you ought to go on a tour would the fleet with your rapier like wit. Actually, I was a great one for ladies playing submarine"

"_Submarine_?"

"Yes… We'd go to bed and rig for deep submergence"

"Wouldn't mind trying that" Starbuck said as she looked him up and down.

"I'm not sure Ensign Smith would like that" Harry smirked.

"Oh, I don't know – she goes both ways" and Harry's eyes widened, he felt a blackness encompass his vision and he dropped to the deck. "You, alert Doc Cottle he has Harry Potter incoming" Starbuck shouted at a passing crewman who nodded quickly and ran to the nearest phone. "Hey, Apollo, a hand…?" she asked as she spotted the CAG walking towards her.

"What have you done to him?"

"I swear I did nothing to him"

"Where have I heard that one before?" Apollo asked as he bent down to help pick up Harry.

**A/N:**

**As always, I appreciate reviews and thoughts**

**Pixel and Stephanie**


	3. Return to Caprica

**Return to Caprica**

With no response to the requests for a truce and peace talks, Adama had decided to push on and find a suitable world to settle on. However, before they left the safety of the nebula there was the matter of those left behind. Intelligence provided by the defecting Cylons indicated that it was likely a lot of civilian and military ships were left disabled in groups or on the ground. With that in mind, Roslin had asked that Adama come up with a plan to get hold of the ships and as many of the survivors as might be found on the surface of Caprica. A plan was hatched up where Harry would load up his blue ship like thing with as many Marines as could be made ready for combat and use it to Portkey them all to Caprica after some FTL jumps to within range of the planet so the Marines could secure the ships as quickly as possible and search for people in the two hours they thought they might have at the outset.

"Hey, Apollo, I have a question to ask you" Harry said as he looked over maps where ships had supposedly been gathered.

"Sure… Whats up?" asked the CAG as he tossed a clipboard onto the podium.

"I'm not happy with this plan of setting up a base of operations. I mean, the plan itself is sound, but…"

"You wonder about being caught in the open by Raiders"

"Yeah… Would it be possible to take a couple of Vipers with me? In the old days, I'd be doing something like this with air cover provided by broomstick riders, but if you change the brooms for Vipers, the plan is still a good one… If things go wrong quickly, I'd feel better about scrambling two birds up there"

"Yeah… I can see your reasoning behind that" Apollo sighed and looked over Harry's maps. "Here… There is an old airbase left over from the Colonies actually went to war with one another" he tapped at a faded spot was well away from a city in the forest. "It's well away from the major population areas but close enough for a team to get in close and see about saving ships and lives. What I don't understand is why they've left Caprica mostly intact from their attacks"

"Simple" Harry replied sadly, "What better way to show complete dominance over your enemy then to rule from their own capital?"

"Guess it makes sense" Apollo sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I'm glad we're going back and getting the ones left behind – it was me that convinced my father we should leave"

"So I was told. Look, I don't know how many people I will be able to save or if any ships exist" Harry said tiredly, "But we're going to get some back for sure. I'm hoping to hit the supply depots and stores which I would think might be intact somewhat"

"What makes you say that?" asked Apollo with a questioning look.

"Here, take a look" Harry pulled over a map that was marked with red circles. "This is where you think all the bombs were detonated during the Cylon attack. If you notice, they were mostly well away from population centres and seemed to target the military bases and ground based weapons systems"

"But we got reports of bombs detonating over Caprica City"

"Come now, Captain… You should know that things get confusing during battles. The Cylons dropped conventional ordinance in the cities because they wanted to take prisoners because there would be work that needed doing that the Centurions could not do for whatever reason. Also, if there are as many copies as we've been told, they will need to eat and drink like pretty much any of us"

"I see… By the way, where is Viper 343?"

"Oh, its on the roof of the Wardroom"

"I se– What is it doing there?"

"I was working on fixing a fault with it when the alarms went off and startled me… I'll go and grab it soon. I just hope that its pilot is okay"

"Why?"

"She was in it at the time"

#

"Are you sure on your choice of pilot and ECO?" asked Adama.

"Yeah… After we told her everything and she agreed to a little brain based jiggery pokery, Boomer has been a great asset to the fleet. This way, it can be proven to the fleet at large that this Eight, at least, is a loyal member of the Colonial Fleet" Harry shrugged. "Anyway, she is a good friend of mine now. The majority of the crew know she didn't mean any of her actions and wasn't even aware of her nature"

"And your other mission…?" Roslin spoke up from behind her desk. She was meeting to discuss plans on Colonial One with Adama and Harry before they launched the mission back to the Colonies to grab ships and survivors.

"Whilst the Marines are clearing each ship and a steaming party starts them up, I'm going to use the remaining time to take some people to the nearest city and grab as much supplies as we can carry. I know I have stocked nearly every ship in the time since I got here, but I can't keep doing that forever. At least this way, you will have the tools and equipment to do it yourself and let me rest more"

"Have we been working you hard?" asked Roslin in concern.

"Yeah, but I've done all I can to help you out. As soon as this mission is over, I'm going to need a week doing little to no magic because I'm pretty close to crashing" Harry rubbed the sides of his head. "Normally, I'd be given a potion to put me in a deep sleep which would fully recharge my magic within a day or so. However, since I don't have that ability any more, I have to take a week off or else I go into a coma"

"After all you have done for us, Harry, you deserve it and so much more"

"I agree… I know we have not always seen eye to eye, but that's because we are two of the same kind" Adama noted. "We are both military leaders who do not trust easily"

"No, we don't" Harry chuckled. "I'm going to the Raptor and lying down until its time to go. Decide what else you want doing on this jaunt and let me know" and Harry popped away.

"He has been a great help" Roslin commented again.

"Yes, and I think we're asking too much of him, Madam President" Adama said simply. "Nearly everything we have asked of him he has done – the kid is worn out from doing some of the most fraked up stuff I have seen"

"Should we award him a medal?"

"He doesn't strike me as somebody that would appreciate a medal for doing what had to be done"

"We have to thank him somehow" Roslin remarked, "Because otherwise the people would think us ungrateful and hard hearted"

"That's something he could never be" Adama grunted. "We noticed he started vanishing between five and six in the evening. Eventually, one of the ships in the fleet called in and told us they'd been having Harry coming over and playing with the children that were orphaned by the attacks on the Colonies"

"I wouldn't have thought he'd do that"

"Neither would I, but the Captain of the _Malfoy_ reported that he makes them hover in the air and spins them around a little before they run around the cargo bay playing Tag. From what I can tell, he makes it a point to visit them every day at usually the same time"

"Is it a danger?"

"Danger? Madam President, in the time it would take us to breathe a single breath, he could kill the pair of us. If he wants to spend an hour a day making kids happy and forget about what has happened, I am not going to stop him"

#

"I wish I could come with you" Rebecca said.

"I know, love, but I can't risk getting you hurt and not being able to do anything" Harry held her in a one armed hug as they sat in the observation room of the _Galactica_ and watched the Vipers do some fighter practice.

"Just use your magic on me" Harry chuckled.

"It doesn't work quite like that" he replied. "If I was fighting the Cylons and you were badly hurt, me coming to save you could cost dozens of lives. I'm going on a week away from all of this on Cloud 9 – just me, the recordings of bird sounds, water in the lake and you"

"_Me_?"

"Yeah… Spoke to the Commander about this and he said that he'll give you a week's leave. Somebody checked and you were about due for time off anyway. I'll be back in three or four days anyway" Harry added with a shrug.

"Still a long time without talking to you… Kind of got used to being with you"

"As I recall, we've never been together" Harry raised an amused eyebrow at the outraged expression on Rebecca's face.

"Just… Just be careful" Rebecca whispered as she held Harry tighter. Harry, for his part, remained silent for a while as he experienced emotions he'd not felt for many years.

"I will try" he vowed at last, "I will try…"

#

"We should give the Colonials all of our command codes" said one of the Sixes.

"They will not work, the codes will have been wiped the moment we were captured as per procedure" the Three replied.

"And what if we do give them our command codes? What then?" asked the Two. "God's will might be for us to die and who are we to question him?"

"If it were God's will for us to be free, then he would not have allowed us to be taken" said the Six. "Natasi has already sided with the Colonials and is more or less free to walk about the ship"

"With an escort" derided the Three.

"The Colonials could have tortured us, used drugs on us… All to gain our secrets, but they did not – why? This war was wrong from the start, you all know this, and we should have been better at stopping it before it broke out"

"It has happened, sister"

"Yes, it has happened" the Six growled at the Two, "So now we make it better for one and all by helping to put things right" and she turned to look out the cell door. "Excuse me, Marine, but I'd like to speak to Commander Adama at once… I wish to defect to the Colonial Fleet"

#

Harry stepped foot on the surface of an alien world and took a look around at his surroundings and was saddened by what he saw. Decomposed bodies littered the ground where Cylons had found them and killed them without mercy or a second thought. Why these people had come to an old and abandoned base, Harry could not tell, but they had and they had died here defending it – the three Cylon machines that had been torn to pieces proved that.

"Gunny, where would you say is the best place to set up a base?" Harry asked.

"Repair shop, Sir" the Gunnery Sergeant replied with a quick glance. "It looks to be in the best shape and it means we don't have to waste time setting up the tents" she looked at the old and ruinous control tower. "Think you can pop up there and check its okay to use?"

"Lookouts?"

"Yes, Sir… Its got a clear line of sight on all the approaches to the base, so we should have enough warning if ground or air assets are tasked towards us"

"Right…" Harry flicked his wand and all of the equipment the Marines had brought with them floated out of Harry's craft, he tried to think of it that way, and towards the repair shop with the Marines fanning out and following it – keeping a close eye on the surrounding area. Once inside, Harry left it to the Marines to unpack and set up while he apperated to the top of the old control tower and saw that it indeed gave a great view of the surrounding area. He repaired the windows, eliminated the dust and transfigured the remaining debris into two comfortable chairs for the lookouts to sit in. "Rogue Lead, this is Seeker… Eagle's Nest is secure – send the fledglings"

"_Seeker, Lead… Acknowledged, out_" and Harry had a good look around from his vantage point. In the far distance, he could see broken towers that had once been gleaming sky scrapers and noticed the sea that seemed to be a kind of murky brown and black colour. He couldn't be sure, but he assumed it meant that sealife, at least that which lived somewhat close to the surface, had been killed by the radiation. Tomorrow, he knew he was going to be seeing bodies and he took a few calming moments whilst he was alone to prepare himself for it. He was no stranger to war, that much was certain, but no matter how many camps he and his team had liberated, he could never get over the sight of bodies laying around like pieces of meat on the ground. He was still thinking about things concerning the fight against Voldemort when the first two lookouts came up the stairs and saw what Harry had managed to do.

"As Ops go, Sir, this is bloody cosy" one of them said.

"I've made it comfortable for you up here, but to the outside viewer it would look completely as it did before we left. I am needed whilst I am asleep, press this rune" he handed them a small piece of rock with a shape carved into it.

"Whats that do?" asked one of the Marines.

"Emits a little pulse of magic that will wake me up – kind of a magical alarm clock. When my body is hit by it, it wakes me up fully charged and ready for action"

"Damn… I think we could do with a couple of these so we can sleep later before getting up for our duty shifts"

"Sorry" Harry chuckled with a grin, "But this is for Officers and Senior NCOs only"

"So where do you fall in there?" asked the other Marine.

"KCMG"

"Huh?"

"Kindly call me God" and Harry apperated away to their camp.

#

"Sir…?" it was a Corporal offering him a steaming mug of tea.

"Thanks. Oh, by the way, I'm not in your military – drop the sir"

"Yes, Sir"

"You know I can turn you into a little puppy with pink bows in its fur?"

"Really?"

"Gunny?" Harry shouted, "Permission to turn the Corp here into a cute little puppy?"

"Granted" and Harry flicked his wrist and turned the man into the previously described dog. "Bring him over here" the Gunny said, "We need a picture"

# # # # #

"It is too quiet" Harry said. "I've checked with a revealing spell and detect no lifesigns… But it wouldn't pick up the Centurions"

"Okay" said the Gunny, "We'll follow your lead in getting inside and cover you whilst you and the specialist get the stuff on the list starting with the most important stuff" she turned to her group of Marines. "We will follow Mr Potter into the facility and give him cover should he need it. Johnson and Collins, make your way down that road to the edge of town and report what you see. If you encounter the enemy, stay hidden if possible. If not, give us your location and Harry will pop in and get you"

"Gunny, what are our orders if we see civilians?"

"Ask if there are any more nearby. If not, fall back to this position with them"

"Gunny…" the other Marine, Harry saw he was named Collins, spoke hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I realise it might be against mission rules, but can me and Johnson go to the petrol station on the outskirts? My folks ran that and they had a bunker left over from the first war under it – even if they were killed there, I'd like to know one way or the other"

"Where is it?" Harry pointed to the map.

"Here, Sir… Corner the road before you hit the outer edges of the town" Collins replied as he tapped a spot on it.

"Take a few seconds to pop there and back if they get into trouble" Harry looked at the senior Marine.

"Alright, if you make the edge of the town in under half an hour, you can go there and check the place out" and then the Gunny's expression softened. "I'd do the same thing" she admitted.

#

"I understand that you want to speak to me" Adama spoke to the Six. "I apologise that I was not able to speak to you until now"

"You are the military leader of a vast number of ships with different problems that need sorting" the Six shrugged, "I can understand. Commander, I wish to formally defect to the government of the Twelve Colonies Of Kobol"

"That wasn't what I was expecting" Adama grunted. "What brought this on?"

"I have come to realise that the war is wrong… That we have to settle disagreements to move on. As a sign of good faith, I am will to disclose the location of a Prisoner of War taken before the resumption of hostilities"

"You took a POW before the holocaust?" Adama sat bolt upright and stared hard. "Who?"

#

"Colonel, Commander Adama on secure intercom" Dee spoke.

"IntSec?" Tigh frowned and picked up the handset. "Tigh"

"_Saul, have all ships switch off their active systems and maintain this position. Have Gaeta and the Navigators pull up what star charts we have of Cylon space and plot a jump point from here to a location marked Alpha One Alpha. Recall everything back to the barn except the CAP_"

"What's up Bill?"

"_I can't tell you over this, Saul. Give the orders and then come and see me in my quarters_"

"Bill, we've served together long enough" Tigh dropped his tone.

"_We're going to buy a Bulldog_"

"I'll get started on those orders right away" Tigh was a drunk, he and almost the entire fleet knew that, but when the chips were down you couldn't hope to have a more loyal man by your side except, perhaps, Adama. "Dee, have all ships hold their positions and turn off their active systems – maintain station using visual aids only. Mr Gaeta, get your navigating team together in a room alone and plot a course for a place the Cylon charts refer to as Alpha One Alpha. Engineering, get a complete mechanical status of the ship and have it delivered to the Commander's quarters. Ensign, you have the deck"

"Wonder what he was talked to about" Gaeta muttered to Dee as she passed on Tigh's orders.

"I don't know, but the XO would never leave the CIC unless it was important"

"Message from Caprica?"

"I doubt it, but I guess anything is possible with Harry" Dee shrugged.

#

"Gunny, the scouting party report no contact until the edge of the city – they are moving to the petrol station to check it out and then reporting back here"

"Understood" the Marine sighed – she had hoped that life might exist somewhere nearby. "Harry, negative on life"

"I thought not" Harry shrugged. "We're almost done here in terms of supplies. We've got everything from avionics packages to tampons"

"Once we've got the supplies and parts, we should head back to basecamp and secure it for transport. Tomorrow, we're going to make a patrol of the city"

"I can make it easier by putting us under an invisibility spell. All I have to do is modify it slightly so that we can all see each other"

"SpecOps would have loved to have met you"

"Gunny, I did Special Operations… Hell, I wrote the book on it"

"How would you have covered this?"

"With aerial viewing. Say, do the Vipers have a gun camera footage option?"

"One of them does, yeah…"

"Good" Harry said. "Stay here and I will be back in half an hour" and he popped away.

"Alright, people, lets secure what we have and be ready for transport" the Gunny said. "You three, go on sentry outside"

"_Gunny, this is Romeo One Two… I have the sound of aircraft overflying my position_"

"Understood – hold fire"

"_Gunny, you don't understand – I can't see the aircraft at all_"

"_Romeo Zero One, this is Majestic. I am overflying your position and am invisible thanks to the Klingon Cloaking Device we were given by the _Romaine_ and her air group. I estimate seven minutes to complete tasking and then I will return to orbit. Have to say, this new _Smurf_ class fighter is great. Do you want me to roll in and attack Point Hamburger on the way out_?"

"Negative, Majestic… Just get us the postcards and meet us on the dock by the bay" the Gunny realised that one of the two pilots was worried about intercepted comms and was using nonsensical words to confuse those that might be listening in. What she would have said next would be a mystery because at that moment there was a burst of fire and the Gunny dropped to the ground with half her head missing.

"Majestic, this is Romeo One One… The Gunny has been killed and I am assuming command of the mission" the Corporal quickly gestured for his troop to go to positions and return fire. "Roll in and attack enemy position about four hundred feet north of my location"

"_Rolling in_"

"Corp, I only see the metal toasters – none of those human versions" somebody called.

"Good" the Corporal said. "Concentrate on the flanking Cylons – leave the centre ones for the air support"

"_Romeo One Four here, we're coming in with visitors_"

"One Four, One One – the Gunny is dead. Hole up with your visitors until it is safe. One One to base – prepare for emergency evacuation"

"_One One, Seeker – the order is countermanded. Be ready for exfil from the area at once_" Harry's voice came over the radio.

"Copy… Sir, we've got friendlies coming in from the main road"

"_Understood – I'll keep an eye out for them_" and twin booms caused the Corporal to look up and see a fireball rise up from the sky as the Viper screamed down fire and destruction. The battle quickly became one of terrible cost as more marines died for the loss of just three more Cylons until the air rippled and Harry's craft appeared. "All aboard!" he called out as his head appeared out the 'back'.

"Marines, board!"

"_Mini Me rolling in from the south west to attack_" the second of the two Viper pilots called in the Corporal's headset.

"One One to One Four… You are stepping into danger – activate beacon"

"_Copy_"

"_I have them_" came the voice of Majestic. All around them, the Marines tried to return fire and not get hit as they boarded the craft that had brought Harry to them. Harry, for his part, jumped out and started firing spells with strange and unknown words to them – causing distractions for the remaining Cylons.

"Vipers, make another low pass and then break off and run" he said into his mouth piece.

"_Acknowledged_"

"_Understood_"

"_This is One Four – we're coming up to the edge of the area. I have civilians and military personal_"

"Copy… I'm coming to get you"

"_All thirty of us_?"

"I have a few tricks left, One Four… Base, this is Seeker – prepare for incoming dead and wounded. Go to full alert"

"I wonder how they found us so quickly" one of the Marine muttered.

"We'll figure that out in a moment" Harry said. "_Accio_" and a human form Cylon, a Four, came zooming over to meet the closed fist of a Marine. "Tie him up and gag him" and Harry popped away and came back seconds later with some civilians. This process was repeated for some time until everybody that was rescued had been shoved aboard the craft. The Cylons had either been destroyed or retreated back to where they had come from, the last of the Marines had boarded and Harry retrieved the bodies of the dead.

#

On the basis that he had received his promotion first, Collins assumed command of the Marine detachment and had all of his capable troops deploy into positions around the old base. To help, Harry had placed the area under several charms to pick up anything more advanced than a animal. Whilst this greatly helped matters, Harry found that his magic was almost gone and that he'd not be much more help with the mission at hand unless he got a lot of sleep to try and shore up his magical reserves. The officers, in reality just the three pilots and the ECO, talked about what to do next and the decision was made to wait for dark and then get back to the _Galactica_ and the fleet to lick their wounds in defeat. Boomer and Crashdown, though, still thought it might be possible to rescue the ships and made a secret plan with Harry to return and get them anyway with a couple of the pilots of the fleet. In lieu of the original plan, patrols were sent out to find what food could be found and to bring it back to the base before they left in the morning. They came back with almost eleven tons of food supplies as well as the contents of an entire hospital packed into several ambulances. That night, Harry took a walk around the camp and ended up the control tower and sat with Collins.

"Can't sleep?" the Marine asked.

"No… Something is happening – I can feel it"

"Something you can sense magically?"

"Sort of… I can tell something is up, but there is nothing my detection charms can see"

"Can you not pick up the Cylons now?"

"Oh I can, but I was distracted by sorting out the Viper and giving Majestic her orders. In doing so, I forgot to apply the silencing charms to it… I led them to the depot" Harry sighed and looked out into the darkness. "But it is not that which concerns me"

"Maybe its because of Caprica itself – you did say you had never stepped foot from Earth"

"Aye, maybe" Harry shook his head

"Or maybe it is the dead you can sense"

"I can't sense ghosts, if that is what you mean, but I can feel the great loss of life"

"Maybe" Collins shrugged, "That is what is interfering with your powers"

"Could be… It's happened once or twice before when we liberated death camps. Anyway, forget about that for now – how have the overflights been?"

"Every hour on the dot" Collins replied. "Your spells and charms seem to have done the trick, but we will need to move fast once they come down"

"Yes, I wish we had more time – but the civilians come first. If she were here, Hermione would have said much the same thing"

"Was she a friend?"

"Oh" Harry smiled and his eyes seemed to twinkle for a moment as if in a pleasant thought, "She was much more than that"

"Sounds like you loved her a lot"

"I did" Harry replied with an intake of breath and a hearty chuckle. "She was my most devoted friend back when I was on Earth. I had another friend, Ron, but he ended up being turned against us in the third month of the war and gave up most of our secrets"

"_Hello…? Is anybody there? Oh, please be someone there – I'm so afraid_" a voice came through the radio.

"That is no Cylon" Harry said.

"No shit… This is Romeo One Four" Collins flicked the switch on his transmitter. "Who is calling, over?"

"_Hi, Romeo… I'm Susan. Are you a bad robot?_"

"No" the Marine looked at Harry who had frozen. "How did you find this radio?"

"_Um… I found it on somebody who is sleeping. I tried to wake them up, but they're not really doing anything_"

"Merlin…" Harry breathed. It was clear this kid had got the radio off a dead body.

"Okay, kid, where are you?"

"_I don't know… I'm waiting for my mummy and daddy to appear, but they've not come back yet_"

"Okay… Say, Susan, do you know what type of building you are in?" Collins asked.

"_Uh… Its got lots of food in, so I guess a shop… But it has lots of shelves like daddy's workshop_"

"Sounds like a warehouse" the Marine muttered to Harry. "Do you have a window nearby?"

"_Yes_"

"Okay, Susan, this is important. I need you to look out the window and tell me what is the biggest thing you see out of it"

"_Okay_" and there was several seconds of silence before the girl came back. "_There is a really big wheel and a railway track without a train on it next to it_"

"Did you see anything else really big that's close by?"

"_Um… Does a bank count_?"

"Yes… What was the name of the bank?"

"_It said it was called a Sperm Bank_" and the pair could hear Susan giggle. "_That's a funny name_"

"Yes, it is…" Collins laughed – more at Harry's expression than anything else. "Okay, Susan, can you count to sixty?"

"_I can count all the way to a hundred_" she said proudly.

"Okay… I need you to do something for me. I want you to turn off the radio for five minutes. You will have to count to sixty five times"

"_I can do that_"

"Okay, sweetie… Do that now"

"_Okay… Bye, Romeo_"

"We're going to get her" Collins said to Harry but found he had already vanished and popped back up at their makeshift camp.

#

"I don't see any supply depots so deep inside Caprica City" Majestic said, "So she could have meant a garage"

"Hmm…" Harry was looking at the map which didn't make much sense to him as he had never been round Caprica City before. He certainly could understand a map, a map was a map after all, but he had no idea of the places behind the names.

"Maybe we're thinking about this the wrong way" said Boomer.

"How so?"

"We were thinking about warehouses in terms of supply depots – what if Susan means a Cash and Carry? Look…" Boomer tapped a section of the map, "I used to shop there when I was on leave. I'd go there with my pay and buy huge cart loads of chocolate and soda before going to my flat and watch TV for days"

"It is near the metro station and park" Majestic blinked. "I wonder why I never thought of that"

"Ours is a more military based map"

"Oh"

"We better tell Collins so he can go out" one of the Marines.

"He can come along, but I'm in charge" Boomer said.

"You're just a Cylon"

"I might be a Cylon, but I am your superior officer right now. I intend, Private, to make a report to the Commander detailing your casual racism towards an officer. For the moment, you are confined to the base – hand me your sidearm"

"And I refuse…?"

"Corporal Smith, arrest the Private and confine him to a tent under guard" Boomer sighed.

"Ma'am, I'm not sure that I can take orders from a Cylon"

"You too?" Boomer slowly drew her sidearm along with Majestic. "Arrest the Private, Corporal"

"Sorry, Ma'am, but no…" the Corporal lay down his weapons in front of the two Pilots.

"_Imperio_" Harry cast the spell and almost winced at the drain it put on him. "You will go with the pilot known as Majestic and sit in a tent under armed guard whilst being handcuffed" and the two Marines were gently herded away by Majestic towards a tent in the old hanger. "Would you have really shot them?"

"No" Boomer shook her head with a smirk. "You see, I forgot to load my weapon before leaving _Galactica_. Are you alright?" she asked as she saw Harry waver on the spot.

"Aye, just drained what I had got back. Can you take me to bed?"

"I don't think Rebecca would like that"

"Oh, like I told Starbuck… She goes both ways and has said she doesn't mind if I sleep with another woman"

"Well… I… Uh…"

"Oh Merlin! Your face, Sharon…" Harry creased up in laughter as the pilot blushed a deep red. "Of course, we could spend the night in the same tent – that way Majestic can honestly say I spent the night with all three pilots"

"What about Crashdown?"

"I think he isn't my type"

#

"Sir, I regret that we lost six Marines" Boomer, being the senior of the officers on the mission, was the one to give Adama a report. "Harry did what he could, but something was affecting his magic – we think it was magical tiredness or something"

"I see" the old man was silent for a moment. "Your report states that you were forced to detain two Marines for insubordination"

"Yes, Sir! Both of them refused direct orders from me, the Private was outright racist to me and the Corporal not only refused orders but lay down arms"

"_He what_?" Tigh thundered from where he had been perched on a shelf cut into a bulkhead.

"The Corporal refused to take an order from me and then took off his rifle, removed his side arm and placed them both on the ground. Harry did something to them and had them become meek and mild – he explained it was something so they wouldn't start shooting"

"You failed your primary mission, Boomer, but you still managed to bring back vital supplies and civilians and some fleet members" Adama rumbled quietly. "I shall speak to the President about a suitable commendation – dismiss"

"Aye, Sir" Boomer saluted and then left the cabin.

"I might not be happy with Cylons running around the fleet" Tigh said, "But you know I will back whatever you say, Bill. I'd like to request a General Courts Martials for the pair of them"

"I agree… Doesn't matter to a lower rank what the orders are, if they are lawful then they obey them"

#

"Chief, can I have a word with you for a moment?" Harry looked around as he strolled onto the hanger deck with Rebecca who had been enthusiastic in his return.

"Sure"

"In the supply room" Harry indicated. Once inside the room, filled everywhere with parts for Vipers, Raptors and Shuttles, Harry started to explain his plan. "How many people could you spare from your people that work on FTL drives?"

"Why?"

"We had to leave our mission without the ships, but intel suggests the ships are still there. All I need is somebody to get the FTL working as quickly as possible and a pilot to fly them out"

"Just ask Engineering"

"If half the watch suddenly goes missing, people will start talking… Chief, the FTLs on the Raptors work on the same principle when starting up, right?"

"Sure… Ah, I get it – I can have people ready for you"

"Great… Rebecca is going to work up a list of supplies we're going to need and you get them ready" Harry replied. "Oh, and Chief…?"

"Yeah?"

"Get your people together quietly… Adama has said not to bother about the ships, but we're going to get them anyway"

"Off the books mission?"

"I don't believe in the no win scenario" Harry told him. "We're going to shove the pilots and engineers in Boomer's Raptor and get them. What we need you to do is to deactivate the alarms for the lift to the flight deck so we can get out as quietly as possible"

"What about your magic?"

"I'm using almost the last reserves I have to expand the inside of the Raptor"

"Right, but there is a problem" Tyrol looked around the room and sighed. "The ships will most likely have been powered down completely. That being so, the drives will take twelve hours to warm up and get online – nothing I can do about that"

"I thought you said it would take a few minutes" Harry looked at Rebecca.

"I thought it would"

"Those are for military drives – civilian ones take longer"

"Will Adama stay here this long?"

"Maybe… The Commander would punch the Gods themselves if it helped save his crew, so he'll stay until he knows what has happened"

"That's something at least" Harry sighed in relief. "If anything had happened to Boomer, we'd have been fucked up badly – flying your Raptors is easy… It's the bit about inputting the jump coordinates that's hard"

"Still having trouble reading our language?" asked Tyrol.

"Yes. Anyway, I'm going to have a rest" Harry said. "Rebecca has stuff to do, so I'm heading back to my cabin for some needed sleep in order to top up my reserves. This is technically mutiny, Chief, so you have the chance to back out before anything happens"

"What about you?"

"I'm the Head of another nation – I claim diplomatic immunity"

#

Starbuck had happily offered to help when Harry had pointed out to her that, as the senior officer, she'd technically be classified as the Fleet Commander. Boomer, Majestic and Mini Me had all laughed until Starbuck pointed out that Boomer would be the acting XO, Majestic would be the acting CAG and Mini Me would be the acting Engineering officer. The plan had been put into effect and the expanded Raptor was quickly and quietly loaded up with supplies, pilots and engineering staff that Tyrol had scrounged up from somewhere. Their departure was not completely unnoticed, but there was so much intra-fleet traffic that a Raptor that jumped away without notice was just as likely to be on a secret mission for the Commander. Once they had made their series of jumps back to the Colonies, they had made their way over the course of a few hours towards ships parked in orbit of some asteroids that were held in place by gravitational pull from three planets. Starbuck had made the decision to go there because records indicated at least one Battlestar was there. If the civilian ships couldn't get their drives repaired in time, each pilot would simply land on one of the two flight decks and they'd deal with it later. What surprised them the most was the lack of bodies which indicated, to the majority of them at least, that the Cylons had cleaned up after their takeover.

"Kara, the aux supply is coming online" Boomer said. "Once that's up, the mains will take about twenty minutes to spin enough for reduced power ops"

"Okay" Starbuck replied. She was standing over by the main plotting table and caressed one of the handsets idly. "When you have enough time and power, see if you can dial up the logs and the CIC recorder – I want to know what happened here. Do we have a name?"

"_Enterprise_" and Harry chuckled.

"Something funny?" Starbuck frowned.

"Oh, no… Nothing… It's just a name by a very famous ship from my place" Harry said. "Look, Starbuck, can I peak inside your head? I'm useless without the ability to read your language, so if I get the knowledge from you…"

"Sure" came the reply. Normally, the thought of somebody poking around her head would have caused great trouble and she would have punched the suggester in the face. With Harry, though, it was more a case of trying to do whatever he could with his magic powers for the people of the fleet and asking very little in return. The least she could do was give him the ability to read their language so he could better fit in with his new family – that and he'd need to read something at the upcoming wedding between himself and the Ensign he had a thing for. "Um… How far into my mind do you have to go?"

"Just surface level thoughts" Harry assured her. "Boomer, Tell Kara that all I scan for are surface thoughts and stuff unless Adama asks me to probe a suspect"

"That's what he does with most people"

"_Most_"

"Well according to Specialist Williams, you were probing a certain Ensign you are fond off"

"I was teaching her hand to hand"

"From what the Specialist told me, it was more a case of trying to stick your Viper in her flight pod"

"It wasn't like that – she wants to wait until we're married" Harry blushed for a moment before turning back to Starbuck. "Ready?"

"Yeah" Starbuck took a deep breath and nodded firmly. Harry looked deep into her eyes and started to absorb all of the knowledge of the Colonial language…

_Beep Beep_

"Woah" Harry stumbled back from where had been standing – so startled had he been by the noise.

"You alright?" Starbuck grabbed Harry before he could fall to the deck.

"I will be in a few minutes"

"Sharon, find that beeping noise and turn it off"

"Right" the human form Cylon went from console to console finding out which one was beeping. "Oh shit…" she adjusted a few settings on the controls and paled. "ACTION STATIONS! INBOUND CYLONS – LAUNCH VIPERS!"

"Boomer, we have no weapons or Vipers" Starbuck said, running over to the console and looking at the display. "The DRADIS is set to passive, so of course it would pick up the incoming Cylons… Still, see Mini Me and find out if we can get a few missiles in the tubes – if they do bounce us, I want to return fire and show those toaster bastards we're not finished"

"Racist"

"Hey, your family wiped out billions – great relatives you have, Boomer"

"Sometimes I wish I had joined them" Boomer shook her head and fished for a radio in a pocket.

"Are you alright?" Starbuck had come back around to see to Harry.

"Yeah – just a lot to take in"

"Kara, Mini Me says we can get maybe five missiles ready if she has help" Boomer said.

"I think we can do better" Harry smirked. "I can shrink these missiles, get them into their tubes and then undo the spell – you should be able to have a full sweep of missiles"

"Alright" Starbuck looked at the overheard DRADIS display that was struggling into life and noticed the Cylon contacts hanging around at the edge of range. "Boomer, tell Majestic to get some Vipers readied for launch at once"

"We don't have that many Viper pilots here"

"No, but you got emergency training so you could get in one if needed"

"Yeah, to shuttle one to a repair depot – not to fight" Boomer sounded frightened. This would be the first time she would be going into combat since her reveal as a Cylon and the girl was scared.

"Well, will you mention this when we get back?"

"Sure – why?"

"Because I get more money if I'm a Viper pilot"

#

"Starbuck, we've got a problem…" Majestic said.

"What?"

"I was checking out the Raptors to make sure none of them had that virus onboard. As I was going over the wireless, it picked up calls for help from groups of civilians on the ground. I've plotted their locations on a map and they are in remote mountain areas"

"How many in total?"

"Between two and three thousand, I think. Kara, if Harry can cloak one of the cargo ships, we can swoop down and grab everyone and be out before the Cylons even knew we were here"

"Anything on the military frequencies?"

"No" and Starbuck frowned – she was sure that some form of the Colonial military had survived.

"Keep scanning and seeing if you can get a message through without the Cylons picking them up. How are we doing with moving stuff between ships?"

"I'm just filling up cargo holds full of as many supplies as possible" Majestic replied. "Some of the ships can't move without extensive repairs, so we're pulling what we can off those and rigging them to scuttle the moment we leave"

"Alright, but I want you to get as many Raptors as can be found and arm them with a nuke each"

"Why?"

"Because before we leave here, I plan to give the Cylons a damn good fraking. Have you seen Mini Me?"

"Helping to get the FTL up on a bakery ship – she found one on the outer edges of the group. Its old, but the FTL looks to be in good shape. I guess the Cylons figured it was easier to take that instead of repairing damaged bakeries on the ground"

"Got to feed their prisoners somehow" Starbuck muttered. "Look, finish what you are doing here and get started on prepping Vipers for launch – something tells me we're about to get unwelcome visitors"

"_Hello…? Is there anybody out there_? _This is Specialist 1__st__ Class Smith to any colonial units – please respond_" the Raptor's wireless crackled into life as the ECO's screen suddenly blinked into life and was displaying data at a rapid rate. The two pilots blinked at each other in surprise before Starbuck reached over and picked up a headset and put it on.

"This is Thrace, Acting Fleet Commander. What is your location, Specialist, and give me a Sit Rep"

"_Ma'am, I'm at Kinloss Naval Air Station. My situation is that we're stuck here with limited food supplies for eleven hundred people. We've got a mixture of newly minted officers and engineering staff plus a couple of our families that made it out here. We've repulsed two attacks by the Cylons, but we're not going to be able to hold out for a third one. Can you get us out, Ma'am_?" and Starbuck hesitated for a moment.

"Prepare your people for immediate evacuation, Specialist. Thrace out" and she turned to Majestic. "Find Harry and see if he can use his magic ship to get them out. If we can get everybody out in one go, they can help us get these ships ready to roll"

"Aye, Aye, Ma'am"

#

At the last moment, Starbuck thought about grabbing a few Marines in case they had trouble at the pick up points – either from Cylons or their own people trying to cause a stampede. Part of her had wanted to go down and help, but she knew that her place was in the CIC of the _Enterprise_ and getting what ships they could ready sorted for a jump back to the remnants of the Colonial civilisation.

"Kara, I'm worried about something" Boomer's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"This contact here" she pointed at a lone Cylon vessel at the edge of DRADIS range. "Every fifteen minutes, it comes about two hundred miles closer and does an active sweep before going back"

"Maybe it's a sentry guard"

"If that was the case, why not just park a fighter with these ships?" Boomer frowned and looked at her watch. "Wait for it…" and Starbuck saw the lone contact move closer, use its active scanning equipment and then return to its previous position.

"That _is_ odd" she muttered.

"Its only been doing this since we started getting the FTLs up and running"

"Almost like…" Starbuck swallowed hard and paled. "Almost like it was playing with us. Sharon, sound off action stations… All pilots onboard to grab a Viper. Have engineering crew man the guns"

"Why?"

"Because its keeping tabs on us for its buddies. When we are ready to jump, they come in and swoop down on us"

"Starbuck, we've only just got enough engineers to keep the reactors running and the lights on"

"Attention all hands, this is Starbuck. Marines, man the PDGs on the double" Starbuck switched channels on the wireless. "Seeker, this is Starbuck"

"_Seeker_"

"Harry, we've got possible enemies incoming – how much longer will it take for you to get people aboard?"

"_Another twenty minutes_"

"You have ten minutes, Starbuck out. Sharon, get in touch with the ships that are still working on their FTLs and have them land in the pods" to both women, the alarms sounded very loud in the otherwise empty CIC. "I will get us closer to the fleet and you start getting the FTL powered up from cold"

"Right" Boomer crossed over to the engineering console and started to get to work. Starbuck, meanwhile, found her way to the piloting station and glanced at the readouts. As she examined the controls, she realised this was going to be a lot more difficult then piloting a Viper or Raptor.

#

"…_out_"

"Damn… Corporal?"

"Sir?"

"We just got word from Starbuck – the Cylons might be coming to get us. We need to get these people in faster"

"We're going as fast as we can"

"I know. I want two good people left in my ship and the rest of your spread out in a circle around it. I'm going to apparate the whole lot of them inside over a couple of trips"

"Yes, Sir… What about the gear?"

"I'll worry about that – you worry about ground and air cover"

"Right" the Marine turn to his squad. "Jackson, Davis. The two of you get on that roof with the Gimpys and face both ways of this LZ. The rest of us are going to take up a double circle position offset"

"We've got more civilians coming this way" somebody called out. Harry turned to see a wounded girl being carried by four people who bore injuries themselves.

"We've got incoming – Cylon Raiders to the east" and Harry quickly cast a shield that covered the entire area.

"Fall back to the ship" he told the Marines in the voice he used as an Auror. The Marines, conditioned to following the orders of anybody who sounded like an officer, fell back and boarded the blue craft that had brought Harry to them.

"Sir, we're all aboard"

"I can't leave" Harry said sadly. "The moment I drop the shield, the Cylons will swoop down and take us all out. The only way for you to get out of here is to return to the Battlestar the instant I drop the shield. Press the rune that looks like a semi circle"

"What about you?"

"Rational transaction – one life for thousands. Once you are gone, I'll try to do what damage I can here and hope for the best" and Harry shrugged and looked back at the Corporal. "Tell Rebecca that I know it would have been good"

"Must be one hell of a planet you Earthlings come from"

"Not too bad" Harry smiled. He watched as the craft like egg sealed its up and started to him with energy. Dropping the shield, he saw it quickly vanish and take the Colonials with it back to the _Enterprise_ before summoning a dropped heavy weapon and casting a combination of an ever refill and a feather light charm on it. "Right then, you bastards, lets have you…!" and he started to aim at the nearest target and let loose a long burst which struck one of the flying Raiders and a few rounds went through the visor like construct at the front and it wheeled over and then flew right into the ground. The emergency evacuation under the shield had caused the Marines to drop their weapons and fall back, so Harry summoned those too and shrunk them for further use at a later time in his evasion. Hearing a high pitch drone, he turned to see a pair of Raiders coming at him and fired a few bursts off before running for cover inside an armoured shelter that led into some caves. His plan was simple – the position would give him cover from air attack. If they started to land ground forces, he'd do what he could and then fall back into the cave and collapse the mouth. He had a few days of rations to live off, more if he created duplicates, but he would otherwise have no plan. The cave system the surviving Colonials had been hiding in had just the single entrance which had caused huge delays in getting people sorted out, but which also proved to be a smart plan from a defensive position – any attacker would be forced to come down the long entry and exit tunnel to the cave system under the mountain. Taking a moment to settle his nerves, he thought that this would be the last stand of the Auror Corp and the last action taken by a member of the magical United Kingdom.

#

"We tried to beg him to come back with us, but he said it was a drawback of using that type of magical spell"

"Alright, Corporal, get secured and then grab some rations and water" Starbuck said and then turned to look at her fellow squadron mates. When they had got news of Harry staying behind, none of them had liked the thought of their friend and somewhat saviour being captured and tortured. Quite apart from the compassion, there was also the chance that they can make themselves magical and strike a crippling blow to the fleet of ships waiting for them. "We need to go and get him"

"If we do, what about the people and ships we've rescued?" asked Mini Me.

"Davi, we're not going to win this by playing safe" Boomer rolled her eyes.

"I know, but I might have an idea about that… When we jump, the Cylons will detect the FTL point. So, we set the ship to jump on a timer and have one of the Specialists radio in for help. We'll be in a Raptor armed with whatever we can grab with it set to jump to the LZ the moment the fleet goes"

"An escort of three Vipers as well" Kara said. "Adama is going to be pissed at us – maybe even throw us in the Brig"

"Well" said Boomer cheerfully, "Let's hope we all get killed"

"Its okay for you" Majestic said dryly, "You get to come back if you die"

"Hot dang!" Boomer smirked, "Finally pays to be a Cylon. Look, I'll get my Raptor ready to go while you deal with the civilians and get the fleet ready to jump"

"Right" Starbuck nodded. "If anybody wants to back out, now is the time"

#

On the grounds that her Raptor had a better surveillance package compared to the detection gear fitted to ships, Boomer launched first and took position at the rear of the fleet.

"Boomer to _Enterprise_ – standby to accept package" she thumbed the wireless.

"_Copy… Standing by_"

"Transmitting" Boomer typed a few commands into the ECO station and then hurried back to her seat.

"_Accepting and decoding… _What?_ Boomer, we're building up to a jump. Whats happening? Cut the damned dr_–" Starbuck's voice was cut off as the entire fleet suddenly jumped away in multiple flashes of light. The resulting silence was punctured only by the soft humming and beeping of various pieces of equipment.

"Still glad you came along?" Boomer asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the worlds" Rebecca replied. Boomer simply chuckled and then turned to look at those gathered behind her.

"Marines, prepare to disembark"

"AYE, AIR, MA'AM!"

"That's my Marines – always finding new and interesting ways to die". The Raptor turned round and headed towards the planet for the spot they had last known Harry to be in. entry to Caprica's atmosphere was bumpy, as it always seemed to be, and they emerged a few minutes later into the dark and cloudy skies. "Anything on DRADIS?"

"No, I don't think so" Rebecca replied. "There is some interference about where Harry was last seen, but its hard to tell anything in that area"

"Keep an eye out for Raiders. If any of them get close enough to engage us, we've only got a few missiles and the cannon"

"Would it help if we opened the hatch and fired?" asked one of the Marines.

"Er, no…" Boomer looked at Rebecca who shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"Boomer, there are some Raiders on the ground" she said as an urgent beeping suddenly erupted – forcing her to shut them off with a slap of her hand.

"How many?"

"Tally three Raiders and something… Bigger?" she finished as a question.

"Could be a Heavy Raider" said Boomer with a sigh. "Marines, we're going to have contact on the ground. Corporal, I'm going to make one pass with the Raptor and destroy or disable the Raiders before doing a firefight deployment"

"Ma'am" the Marine nodded in understanding. The Raptor made a single swooping pass over the landing area and then wheeled around and came down somewhat hard and with a few muttered curses. "Marines, go!" and the hatch was thrown open and the team poured out and attacked the Centurions.

"Rebecca, listen carefully" Boomer spoke quickly as she undid her harness. "I want you to keep looking at the DRADIS. If it looks as if we're going to be overrun here, close the hatch and jump away – the thing is already set to take you back to the fleet"

"What? What about you?"

"Harry saved me when everybody else was ready to kill me. I could not call myself his friend if I was not prepared to save his life. Anyway, he'd kill me if you were hurt" Boomer unstrapped the pistol that tied to her side. "Two hours and then fly away… Fly away and never come back" and, with that, she left the Raptor.

#

"Corporal, report" Boomer said as she got up to the group of Marines.

"Ma'am, we've not seen anything from the tunnel mouth except traces of some sort of explosion" the Corporal nodded towards the cave mouth, "But we have an advantage – Private Smythe was a cave rescuer before joining up. He can tell us if the caves are okay and safe"

"We have about two hours left to look. The nuclear warhead we're carrying will reach the critical stage in two hours and twenty minutes. Safe is relative"

"You have a backpack nuke?"

"Yeah… My mission and my rules, Corporal. I have a detonator to trigger it much quicker if needed, but the timer is set to go off in over two hours" Boomer shrugged. "I don't want to be held captive and nor, do I suppose, would you"

"Good point" the Corporal said and Collins turned to his squad. "Smythe, take point and scout a little way ahead… The rest of us will move along behind you – half in front of the LT and half behind her"

"Sir, the Private requests permission to cover the LT's rear" a youngish Marine put their hand up with a laugh. Boomer blinked and then laughed with a shake of her head and a rosy tint to her cheeks.

"Private, you may cover my rear… Just try to leave it in one piece"

"No hands on approach?" the Private raised an eyebrow in a smirk.

"Visual only…" the woman shook her head with a slight smile. "Alright, people, lets settle down and move out". The Marines had, for the most part, accepted her as a form of liberated POW and accepted the orders she gave to them without hesitation. Despite her Cylon heritage, the woman thought of herself as more Human then machine with friends and a family.

#

"Damn fine way to end up dying" Harry muttered as he cracked open a ration pack and ate the contents. "Tastes like chicken" he added to the gloom. He'd decided to not have too much light for the Cylons to find him by, but he needed something to see around his space. He'd reached the end of the tunnel and found a vast amount of smaller ones leading off to the cave spaces the refugees had been in. Hermione, Padma and Luna would have loved to explore the place and fit it out as an actual base for their small group of resistance fighters. He was just about to take a few moments of quiet to close his eyes and rest when he heard noises and bolted upright and dived for his weapons – aiming them up the tunnel. When he saw the robotic Cylons coming towards him, he fired from side to side with the heavy weapon – shells pouring out at an incredible rate. The Cylons returned fire and Harry was hit by a few bullets in the left arm and he hissed in the agony that resulted. Under normal circumstances, he would simply heal the wound but couldn't this time because there was no let up in the fire. Harry could feel himself weaken from the blood loss and picked up the last of his grenades and considered it very careful as he kept firing. He had never thought about suicide, but the memories of being abused by the Dursleys and numerous hospital visits made him think about it more.

'_You know, its not a dishonourable way to die_' somebody said in a voice that sounded oddly like Cho Chang's.

"Drop dead"

'_Already have done_'

"Encore…" Harry said under his breath. He knew that of the Cylons were able to capture him alive, there was a chance his magic could be copied and used against the Colonials. Resolving to die on his feet and fighting the enemy, Harry stood up and pointed towards the three Centurions and four human formed copies of the Six model. "I WILL KILL YOU!" he screamed as he pointed. As he did that, they suddenly and quite quickly blew up in a shower of scrap metal, fire, blood, guts and all manner of gore. The sound of the explosion was almost deafening as Harry slowly looked at his finger as if it had suddenly become the most powerful finger in the universe. He was still trying to work out how this had happened when Boomer and her Marine party came storming over the wreckage of metal, bodies and rock to find Harry swaying on the spot.

"Harry…!" Boomer rushed over and called for the medic of the unit to come over and treat Harry as quickly as possible.

"I… I thought I was going to die" he said weakly.

"Not possible – you were never alone"

"Ma'am, we have forty five minutes until the Raptor jumps"

"Raptor?" asked Harry slowly.

"Rebecca is sat in my Raptor waiting for us. She is under direct orders to wait two hours for us and jump away or else leave if Cylons come. If that happens, we've got a nuke to take us all out so we don't feel anything and avoid capture. Corporal, what can you do for him?"

"Not much, Ma'am… Just patch him up for now and get back to the fleet"

"Do it – we haven't much time" she turned to the others. "You and you… Wait for the Corporal to finish here and then assist Harry. The rest of you, you have until that is done to find and retrieve any intel"

#

1:59:45

1:59:46

1:59:47

"Come on…" Rebecca begged to the Gods they'd come out.

1:59:54

1:59:55

Her orders were absolute and inviolable. Rebecca had always obeyed every order given to her by her superiors, but she found this one to be the hardest to follow. How could she be asked to abandon Boomer, the Marines and Harry to their deaths either from Cylons or the backpack nuke that she knew Boomer was carrying.

1:59:59

"Come on, guys…". The following second seemed to stretch almost to infinity as she looked again at the mouth of the cave tunnel. She strained as hard as she could to see them coming out, but she saw nothing but darkness and despair. Glancing back down at her display, she saw the dull gleam of the FTL jump key that had been inserted by Boomer before she left. It taunted her, mocked her and silently accused her for her action as the Raptor's computer completed the turning from 1:59:59 to 2:00:00 and flashed rapidly and sounded an alarm to indicate it had completed its assigned task.

As if somebody was moving her hand, Rebecca reached forward and turned the key.

#

"Well" said one of the Marines as the Raptor flashed away, "There goes our ride…"

"Maybe not" Harry struggled to whisper through the pain. "Boomer, can you fly a Cylon vessel?"

"Sure" the woman blinked in confusion before realising what Harry meant. Out of the Cylon vessels that had landed, Boomer had left the Heavy Raider alone in case they needed to use it to escape.

"Ma'am?"

"Marines, get Harry inside the ship while I try to get this thing working. The rest of you fan out and make a perimeter" and she went inside to get the Heavy Raider working and run through the tests as quickly as possible whilst also looking for any booby traps there may have been. It took nearly fifteen minutes for her to get it ready, but the Marines quickly boarded and she took off. However, she did not take the Heavy Raider directly to orbit to jump, but sped quickly towards a Colonial Fleet Air Arm station now being used by the Cylons. "I'm going to land in the middle of the base" Boomer announced. "When I open the hatch, throw the nuke out and then hold on as tight as possible – I'm zooming us out of here"

"Finishing the mission?" asked the Corporal.

"Yeah… Figured you Marines would like that"

#

"Commander, we've lost power to the forward weapons batteries" the engineering crewman called out.

"Switch to aux"

"Sir, we were already on that"

"Very well. Helm, come right heading 221 carom 989" Adama snapped out. The fight had been raging for forty five minutes, and he was only happy that the civilian ships had jumped away.

"Nukes! Radiological Alarm" Duella said over the noise of multiple voices. "Inbound fighters dead ahead – heading for our bays"

"If they get in there and detonate…" Tigh shuddered.

"I know. Order our Vipers to intercept"

"Unable, Commander – all fighters are engaged"

"Retract the pods" Tigh said quickly.

"They'll never do it in time" Adama said as he watched the two Cylon Raiders come straight at him. As the two fighters came closer and closer, Adama and Tigh prepared for the worst. All of a sudden, a new and unknown contact jumped in front of _Galactica_, spun round and eliminated the two Cylon fighters. As if by magic, the two Basestars decided that discretion was the better part of valor and jumped away with most of the Raiders – leaving the damaged ones to be torn apart by the Vipers. "Get me that ship" Adama thrust a finger at the overhead DRADIS display.

"Aye, Sir" Tigh grabbed a handset and punched a button. "Attention unknown ship, this is the Battlestar _Galactica_. Identify yourself or we will fire upon you"

"Galactica, _this is Boomer_" her voice came back loud and clear. "_Put me through to Actual_" and Tigh's jaw dropped in astonishment.

"What the frak…?"

"Dee, give me direct contact"

"Aye, Sir" the woman swiftly replied.

"This is Actual – go ahead, Boomer" Adama said almost the moment he picked up the handset.

"_Actual, Mission Accomplished in all respects. Request heavy security from the portside hanger deck to the Brig_"

"Why?"

"_Sir, we… We have a prisoner and memory modules containing the latest positions for Cylon vessels. Also, request medical trauma team to meet us_"

"You have wounded onboard?"

"_One, Commander – it's Harry_" and there was a gasp as Rebecca left the CIC and stormed down to the hanger deck.

"Roger that – land in a Raptor as quick as you can and then report to me in my quarters on the double" he flicked a switch. "Medic to the Portside hanger at the rush"

**A/N:**

**As always, I am never good at putting words down as a first chapter, so I'll just leave it here as it is for now…**


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